A car fatally struck an 80-year-old man in San Francisco’s Mission District on Wednesday afternoon, according to police.
The Chief Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed San Francisco resident Jian Huang as the crash victim. Huang’s next of kin have been notified.
Huang was crossing Valencia Street at 18th Street when a car turned left into the crosswalk and struck him, according to a report from San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets. Police found Huang unconscious and in critical condition before he was taken to the hospital.
“The driver whose vehicle hit the pedestrian stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators, who do not suspect impairment as a factor in the collision,” police said.
This marks the 14th pedestrian death in San Francisco in 2023. Transit and safe street advocates have raised the alarm about the number of deadly collisions involving pedestrians.
“Our hearts go out to this man’s loved ones and community,” Walk San Francisco Executive Director Jodie Medeiros said in a statement. “We grieve for yet another life lost so senselessly on our streets.”
The city has responded to deadly vehicle-pedestrian collisions by announcing safety improvements for high-traffic and high-injury streets. After a 4-year-old girl was struck and killed at the Fourth and King streets intersection in August, Mayor London Breed announced plans to close a southbound right-turn lane.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is also adding adjustments to most of Lincoln Way, after years of crashes and pedestrian injuries along the busy west-side roadway.
Transit advocates have in the past criticized pedestrian and bicycle safety on Valencia Street, a major north-south route through the Mission that’s been known to have higher rates of serious or fatal collisions.
Bay City News contributed to this report.