Following a report last week that said the estimated total cost of traffic crashes in the city is $2.5 billion between 2018 and 2022, San Francisco leaders and advocates rallied at City Hall on Tuesday, urging the city to recommit to the goal of zero traffic fatalities.
After the report’s release by the Board of Supervisors Budget Legislative Analyst (BLA), Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who requested the report, called for a hearing at the board meeting to discuss the findings of the report and traffic safety.
“Every preventable crash on our streets is a blow to our economy, and every death is an unacceptable tragedy,” Meglar said at the rally ahead of the board meeting. “This is money coming out of your pocket.”
The BLA report used cost estimates based on a 2019 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on nationwide traffic crashes and applied the cost estimates to traffic crashes in San Francisco. Factors contributing to the $2.5 billion cost include not just property damage and insurance costs, but also medical expenses, loss of wages (either by the person injured or a person becoming a caretaker for the injured), and legal costs.
Between 2018 and 2024, the city attorney’s office paid out $61.4 million in settlements and judgments for claims and litigation related to traffic crashes involving city vehicles, the report said.
Advocates said city departments need to continue to work together despite the city’s failure to reach its Vision Zero goal, which was to have zero traffic fatalities by 2024, Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk San Francisco, said at the rally.
“City leaders may want to ignore something that some call a failure, but a lack of progress on Vision Zero is a collective leadership failure, not a failure of Vision Zero,” Medeiros said.
Based on preliminary city data, San Francisco had 42 traffic fatalities last year. Recently, an 86-year-old became the city’s fourth pedestrian this year from a hit-and-run traffic collision.
