Police: Hit-and-run driver strikes, kills female crossing street

SAN JOSE >> A hit-and-run driver killed a woman on an East San Jose street early on June 28, police said, bringing the city close to its 2021 count of pedestrian deaths just halfway through the current year.

The accident was reported at 4:46 a.m. on South Jackson Avenue between Kammerer Avenue and East San Antonio Street, according to San Jose police.

An initial investigation found that a motorist in a black sedan resembling a 2018-2022 Honda Accord was northbound on South Jackson Avenue and hit the victim — who was crossing the street — then left the scene.

The woman's name has not been publicly released pending her formal identification and notification of her next of kin by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-coroner's Office.

There are no marked or legal crossings on the stretch of road where the crash occurred. The area surrounding the site was closed to traffic for about three hours for a police investigation.

Police initially identified the victim as a man, but later stated in a tweet that the person hit was a woman.

According to police and data compiled by this news organization, the collision marked the city's 35th traffic death of the year and the 21st to involve a pedestrian who died. The overall total rose to 36 late on the afternoon of June 28 after a motorist crashed into a tree in

South San Jose.

In all of 2021, San Jose recorded 23 pedestrian deaths. The city in 2022 continues to outpace the total of 60 traffic deaths from last year, which itself was a 25-year peak matched in 2015 and 2019.

The June 29 collision also marks the city's ninth fatal hit and run investigated by San Jose police this year; 13 were recorded in all of 2021.

The grim trajectory of roadway deaths in the first half of the year has drawn significant attention from city leaders, with proposals to increase traffic enforcement and plans to install countermeasures at the San Jose's busiest and most dangerous thoroughfares.

One of those initiatives was a pilot program that installed automated license plate readers at Monterey Road and Curtner Avenue.

Anyone with info about the June 29 hit-and-run collisioncan contact SJPD Traffic Detective Keith Aldinger at 4193@sanjoseca.gov or at 408-277-4654. Tips can be also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.