A woman was struck by a car and killed in San Jose Monday night near Monterey Road and San Jose Avenue -- the second fatal pedestrian accident in two days.
San Jose police officers arrived just before 11 p.m. and found the victim, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the car, an adult male, stayed at the scene and cooperated with police. They do not think he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and he was not arrested.
This has been the deadliest year for San Jose pedestrians in seven years. Twenty-four pedestrians have been killed by cars in San Jose this year. That’s the highest number since 2006.
On Sunday afternoon, a 3-year-old boy was struck at Oak and Vine while he sat in his stroller, and hours later a 14-year-old girl was hit in front of her high school on North White Road.
The 14-year-old, a student at James Lick High School, was talking on her cell phone Sunday night while crossing North White Road when she was struck by the driver of a minivan.
The closest stoplights are two-thirds of a mile apart, and in between are two schools, the Alum Rock Youth Center and just two crosswalks. Neighbors say people drive through the area like they are on a freeway.
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“When the kids get out of school, it’s wild out here,” neighbor Francisco Landavazo said. “People drive fast, people don’t slow down.”
San Jose police aren’t ready to say whether the driver who hit the girl was speeding, but do say alcohol and drugs were not a factor.
San Jose Pedestrian Fatalities By Year: (Source: SJPD)
- 2013 - 24 (Year-to-date)
- 2012 - 12
- 2011 - 20
- 2010 - 7
- 2009 - 14
- 2008 - 16
“The ones that’ve occurred at night, we’re looking at lighting, the amount of pedestrian accidents, speed, but we can’t really pinpoint one thing,” said SJPD Sgt. Heather Randol.
But police and the James Lick principal are both calling for pedestrians and drivers to pay close attention to what they are doing.
“As we learned on Sunday night,” VanderZee said, “you can make the same decision a lot of times, but it only has to go wrong once for a family and a community to feel a profound sense of loss.”
