Two pedestrians have been killed in traffic crashes on San Francisco’s Lombard Street in less than two weeks, sparking calls from neighborhood activists to improve safety on the bustling corridor.
The San Francisco Police Department says officers responded to reports that a vehicle struck a pedestrian Sept. 12 at around 6 a.m. at the intersection of Laguna and Lombard streets. The pedestrian was taken to a hospital and died.
The second crash occurred Saturday at around 11:30 p.m. at Lombard and Gough streets. The victim died on the scene, according to police. Officers are investigating the collision as a hit and run; no arrests have been made.
Police told advocates the first victim was a 70-year-old woman, and the second was a 52-year-old man, according to Walk San Francisco. The medical examiner has yet to release the identities of the victims.
Jonathan Bünemann witnessed the aftermath of the first crash and heard news of the second.
“It was really sad, but I was also just angry,” the SF resident said. “It just encourages fast driving, the way [Lombard Street] is designed right now.”
The section of Lombard Street where the crashes occurred looks more like a highway than the steep, narrow curves that have made other parts of the road famous. This stretch features six lanes of vehicle traffic, carrying drivers to and from the Golden Gate Bridge. That proximity to the freeway spurs drivers to speed, according to Bünemann, who said he was recently shouted at by a motorist for walking across the street too slowly.
West of Van Ness Street, Lombard Street becomes U.S. Route 101. Despite running at street level through the city, it is classified as a highway and managed by the California Department of Transportation. The agency did not respond to a request for comment.
“We need to do so much more to make our state roads — including Lombard — safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and others,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener.
The San Francisco lawmaker introduced a bill, SB 960, that would require Caltrans to adopt more safety policies for the roads it manages, such as Lombard Street. The bill has passed in the Senate and Assembly, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Monday to sign it into law.
Following the fatal crashes on Lombard Street, pedestrian advocates renewed their calls on the governor to push the legislation forward.
“These tragedies were on a street that’s overseen by Caltrans that is designed to be dangerous,” said Walk San Francisco spokesperson Marta Lindsey. “We are calling on Gov. Newsom to sign Senate Bill 960 right now to hold Caltrans to a higher standard in designing streets for safety.”
Twenty-four people have died in traffic crashes in San Francisco so far this year, according to the city’s dashboard. (Neither of the September fatalities on Lombard Street is included; the Department of Public Health, which manages the dashboard, did not reply to a request for comment.)
That puts San Francisco on track to record more traffic fatalities this year than it did in 2023, when 26 died on city streets.