The citizen group Street Safe Rebel installed safety posts at Fourth and Channel streets in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, the intersection where a 2-year-old girl was fatally struck last month while crossing with her mother.
Street Safe Rebel
A vehicle waits to make a right turn from Fourth Street onto Channel Street, an intersection where a 2-year-old was fatally struck by a vehicle while crossing the street with her mother last month.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
A memorial at the corner of Fourth and Channel streets pays tribute to a 2-year-old who was fatally struck last month.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
A memorial for the 2-year-old girl who died at the corner of Fourth and Channel streets.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
Frustrated by what they described as a poor response from San Francisco city officials after a driver killed a toddler at a dangerous intersection, a rogue group of traffic safety advocates set up flexible posts in an attempt to make it safe for pedestrians.
Members of Safe Street Rebel, known for adding unsanctioned infrastructure to improve street safety, installed six posts in about 10 minutes Thursday at the corner of Fourth and Channel streets in the Mission Bay neighborhood, according to the group.
The intersection was where the 2-year-old was killed around 9 p.m. Feb. 27, while crossing the street with her mother, who was severely injured in the crash, according to police. The girl’s name has not been released publicly.
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According to authorities, the driver was going north on Fourth Street in the left-turn lane and ran a red light before striking the girl and her mother as they walked east in the south crosswalk.
A memorial at the corner of Fourth and Channel streets marks the spot where a 2-year-old girl was fatally struck last month.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
Police said the driver did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and cooperated with investigators.
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“Investigators are working diligently on this incident,” the San Francisco Police Department said Sunday in a statement. “We have no further updates at this time.”
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The tragedy highlighted the dangerous nature of the intersection, where wide streets meet at a skewed angle, worsening drivers’ lines of sight, Safe Street Rebel said.
While the posts likely wouldn’t have directly prevented the crash, the group felt the posts were a simple measure to force drivers to slow down and make the intersection safer for pedestrians. The posts mimic a curb extension at the corner, blocking off a wedge of roadway that narrows the street and tightens the turn for drivers.
“It’s pretty mind-boggling that SFMTA can’t even do that after a crash,” said a Safe Street Rebel member, who asked to not be named for fear of legal repercussions from the city. “Because the city wouldn’t do that, we came out and put that quick install in.”
“It doesn’t need to be that way,” they said of the dangerous nature of the intersection. “That’s what we’re trying to show.”
A 2-year-old girl died after being struck by a vehicle at the intersection of Fourth and Channel streets while crossing with her mother, who was injured.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
The group, which did not notify San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency before installing the posts, hopes the transportation agency will take action to replace the posts with an official solution to “narrow the roadway in some form or fashion,” even short-term for now.
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SFMTA officials called the installation illegal but did not say what they planned to do about it.
“Unregulated installations are not legal and may result in unintended consequences without the guidance of engineering best practices and public notification to road users of any road changes,” SFMTA said in a statement.
SFMTA called the crash tragic. “Every injury and loss of life on our streets is,” the agency said, “especially when a child is involved.”
Given the high volume of pedestrians, cars and Muni traffic, transit crews previously took measures to make the intersection safer, including painting high-visibility crosswalks, red curbs to prohibit parking near the intersection and enhance visibility, and updated signal timing to give pedestrians a head start to cross before drivers get a green light, according to SFMTA.
Within 24 hours of last month’s deadly crash, crews repainted crosswalks at the intersection and fixed a streetlight at the northwest corner.
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“We are working on additional changes to improve safety which require careful engineering consideration,” the agency said.
A vehicle waits for its turn at Fourth and Channel streets, the intersection where a 2-year-old girl was fatally struck while crossing the intersection with her mother last month.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
The agency referenced an executive directive Mayor Daniel Lurie signed that calls for coordination among city departments to work on initiatives to make streets safer.
Safe Street Rebel described the response as inadequate, adding that the measures did not help narrow the roadway.
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The group said it previously took a similar action not far away, at Fourth and King streets, where a 4-year-old girl was hit by a car and killed in a crash in 2023. The city later did away with a turn lane and installed a traffic signal.
Fourth Street is part of the city’s high-injury network, the 12% of streets where more than two-thirds of serious and fatal collisions occur. After the toddler’s death, the pedestrian advocacy group WalkSF sounded the alarm about Fourth Street and the broader network of dangerous streets.