Published: June 6, 2026
By: Yaghmai Law Firm, APC
(San Francisco, CA) – A 74-year-old pedestrian died this week after being struck by a vehicle near a gas station on Mission Street in San Francisco, and prosecutors have since charged the driver with murder.
The collision happened beside a gas station on Mission Street near South Van Ness Avenue. The San Francisco Police Department said the driver left the scene and merged onto U.S. Highway 101 after the impact. Officers later located him near Potrero Avenue and 18th Street, where they conducted a traffic stop and took him into custody Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors allege the driver had stopped his black 2024 Mercedes-Benz E350 sedan partly across the sidewalk after fueling up at a Chevron station, and that the pedestrian and driver exchanged words before the collision. According to the District Attorney's office, surveillance video recovered from the gas station captured the encounter and the impact. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the footage showed the pedestrian did not pose a threat to the driver. "As the victim proceeds around the front of the vehicle, the defendant accelerates, hitting the victim, who ends up on the hood of the vehicle before falling off into the roadway as that vehicle proceeds and then is run over," Jenkins said.
The city's Medical Examiner's Office identified the pedestrian as a 74-year-old woman. A defense attorney for the driver disputed the account given by police and prosecutors, stating that his client felt threatened with his family in the vehicle and drove away out of fear for their safety. The driver was charged with murder along with an allegation of using a deadly weapon and a count of leaving the scene of a crash. A judge ordered him held without bail, and a hearing on his bail status was set for April 24.
Analysis of the Mission Street Pedestrian Collision
Fatal pedestrian collisions in California are evaluated under several overlapping bodies of law, and the criminal charges described above are separate from any civil claim a family might pursue. In a civil wrongful-death context, investigators and attorneys typically examine the duties drivers owe to people on foot. California Vehicle Code section 21952 requires a motorist to yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian approaching on a sidewalk before driving over or upon it, and section 21950 addresses a driver's duty toward pedestrians while preserving a pedestrian's own duty of care. Where reported facts involve a vehicle partly on a sidewalk, those provisions may frame the analysis of how the parties' duties applied.
Under Civil Code section 1714(a), every person is responsible for injury caused by a lack of ordinary care. If evidence such as the surveillance video, witness accounts, and vehicle data were to establish how the collision occurred, that evidence would bear on whether the standard of care was met. Evidence Code section 669(a) can create a presumption of a failure to use due care when a person violates a statute designed to prevent the type of harm that resulted and the injured person is within the class the statute protects; whether that framework applies depends entirely on what the evidence ultimately shows.
California also allocates non-economic damages in proportion to each party's share of fault under Civil Code section 1431.2, and section 21950 makes clear that pedestrians, too, carry a duty of due care. Because the account here is disputed, any civil evaluation would turn on a careful reconstruction rather than on either side's initial characterization. The measure of recoverable damages in a tort case is governed by Civil Code section 3333, which compensates for all detriment proximately caused by a wrongful act.
What Families and Survivors Can Do
Families facing a fatal pedestrian collision should request the official police report, preserve any available surveillance or dashcam footage before it is overwritten, and document the scene and the decedent's losses. California's statute of limitations for most personal-injury and wrongful-death claims is two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, so acting promptly protects a family's options. Because a criminal case and a civil claim proceed on different tracks and standards, it is wise to speak with a lawyer early about how the two interact. To discuss a specific situation, call or text (888) 800-6731 or click here for a free case review.
About the Author
Houtan Yaghmai, Esq., President & Managing Attorney of Yaghmai Law Firm, APC. California State Bar No. 298487. Speaks English, French, and Persian. The firm represents personal injury clients throughout Southern California – consultations by phone, text, or video, no office visits required.
This post was assembled with AI assistance from publicly reported news sources cited below. All California Vehicle Code references were verified against leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. Facts were re-checked via additional web searches before publication. This post is based on initial news reports and may be updated as new facts develop. Nothing in this article is legal advice. Yaghmai Law Firm, APC is not associated with the investigating agencies and does not represent any party named in this post unless explicitly stated.
Sources:
1. CBSNEWS – Man charged with murder in San Francisco hit-and-run; prosecutors allege road rage against pedestrian – CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-francisco-fatal-pedestrian-hit-run-road-rage-murder/
