‘We have failed’: Traffic fatalities rise

Report: Deaths have increased a staggering 37 percent in last decade

“For me, this is a staggering, kind of depressing number.” — Councilman Raul Peralez

While the number of people injured in traffic collisions in San Jose has declined in the last 30 years, those killed in vehicle crashes has climbed over the last decade.

In 2018, according to a new report from the city’s Department of Transportation, 52 people died as a result of a traffic collision, up from 46 the previous year.

“For me, this is a staggering, kind of depressing number,” said Councilman Raul Peralez.

Now, facing pressure from pedestrian and bicycling advocates, the city is trying to understand what it would take to not only shrink that number but reduce it to zero.

“We have failed,” Jaime Fearer, the deputy director of the pedestrian advocacy group California Walks and a resident of San Jose, told the city’s Transportation and Environment Committee on Monday.

According to the report, while San Jose’s population grew less than 10 percent in the last decade, traffic fatalities have increased a staggering 37 percent. In 2010, there were just 29 traffic-related deaths. Pedestrians accounted for slightly less than half of traffic fatalities in 2018, with pedestrians over age 65 making up a disproportionate number of those killed. Speed, the report said, is a key factor, along with darkness. And most fatalities happen on major roads. Recently, the number of homeless people being killed has jumped, too.

It’s not exactly clear why the number of fatalities is rising or precisely what it would take to fix the problem. Everything from the types of cars people buy to cellphone usage may be partially to blame. But the report and committee meeting raised several possibilities for addressing the issue, including more funding, more rigorous data analyt

ics and more education.

“Our city budget is a moral document,” Fearer said, imploring the City Council to devote more money to reducing such fatalities.

While the city has received a number of grants to focus on street safety, budget constraints have hit the police department especially hard. Active staffing of the department’s traffic enforcement unit has declined 90 percent since 2010, meaning only around a half dozen officers are dedicated to the unit, which patrols the city’s sprawling network of streets. And while the department says it’s a priority to increase the number of officers dedicated to that unit, it’s one among many competing for attention.

“Increasing the traffic unit is a priority, along with all the other units,” Lt. Steve Lagorio told the committee in response to questioning from Peralez. “We will see an upward trend. It’s coming.”

“This is unacceptable that we haven’t drawn a line a little bit higher in the sand for,” a frustrated Peralez said.

In 2015, San Jose became the fourth city in the nation to formally adopt the Vision Zero transportation safety initiative, meaning the city’s aim is to have no traffic-related deaths in any given year.

To try to reach that goal, the report said, the city has narrowed streets to slow down drivers, installed more bike lanes, and upgraded crosswalks. It’s working with schools to encourage families and students to walk and bike to and from class, and won millions of dollars in grant funding. In 2019, according to the report, the city’s transportation department will reach out to the county medical examiner-coroner to compare fatality data. And in the fall, the department will return to the transportation committee with an updated plan, more data and possible strategies to implement.

Compared to other big cities, “San Jose is relatively low in terms of fatalities per year,” said Jesse Mintz-Roth, the director of the Vision Zero program in San Jose. But, he acknowledged, even accounting for population differences, compared to Oakland and San Francisco, “San Jose is quite high.”

Maya Esparza, another council member who sits on the committee, agreed with Peralez that while the city can spend millions of dollars on infrastructure changes to roads, enforcement is key.

“We really need to rethink how we’re approaching this,” Esparza said.