So far, 2024 marks the highest number of traffic deaths in San Francisco for the past decade after a woman was struck and killed on the City by the Bay's Upper Great Highway on Friday.
The woman was struck at approximately 5:43 a.m. near Ulloa Street, the San Francisco Police Department told the San Francisco Gate. She later died of her injuries in a hospital.
Since Friday, San Francisco has recorded 40 traffic deaths and 24 pedestrian deaths this year. This incident marks the highest number of pedestrian fatalities in a single year since 2014, when the city initiated its Vision Zero program, a program aimed at reducing traffic deaths to zero.
The Upper Great Highway, a strip of road running alongside the city's westside beach, will close to cars in the spring and be transformed into a park.
Commenting on the woman who lost her life, Lucas Lux, president of the nonprofit Friends of Ocean Beach Park, said in a Walk San Francisco press release, "Getting to the beach should not be a life or death matter. With the upcoming transformation into a permanent park early next year, we hope this is the last traffic fatality in this space."