San Franciscans gather at city hall to honor traffic victims during annual remembrance event

By Amanda Hari

People gathered at San Francisco City Hall for the 11th annual World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims. The day honors the millions of individuals hurt and killed in traffic crashes each year.

WalkSF organized the event, where they read off the names of each of the 348 people killed in traffic crashes in San Francisco since 2014.

Around 5,000 more have been severely injured, including John Lowell.

“I had traumatic brain injury and polytrauma injuries, fractures all over me,” Lowell said.

He was hit by a car while walking in a crosswalk back in 2001.  

“That event turned me into an inpatient for over a year,” he said. “I was an inpatient at six medical facilities in the city.”

It changed his life forever.

“Memories are gone and it took a diagnosis and a prescription by a neurologist to help reduce the number of grand mal seizures,” Lowell said.

His father became his guardian because of his reduced capacity.

After years of mental and physical rehabilitation, he has his life back, and he advocates for other traffic victims, including those who can no longer advocate for themselves.

“My sister Mary and I are here on behalf of my sister Rose Kelly, who was tragically taken from us 10 years ago in July,” said a woman at the memorial.

Photos and candles represent the lives lost.

State Senator Scott Wiener believes the city needs to do better.

“Decisions have been made over the years and decades that facilitating fast traffic is more important than people’s lives,” said Wiener. “It’s painful to even utter those words.”

Twenty-one people have died in traffic accidents in San Francisco in 2025. Everyone echoed that more work has to be done to protect people.

But Wiener is proud of the efforts they’re making so far.

“At the state level, I’m grateful to WalkSF and so many advocates for working with us to pass automated speed enforcements,” said Wiener about the new speed cameras that went online this year. “Which is already having incredible impacts in San Francisco in terms of just slowing people down when they’re driving.”

Lowell got to help with another new law to protect pedestrians, the daylighting law, which prohibits people from parking 20 feet from the approach of some crosswalks.

“I had a feeling of joy getting a paint brush to paint a curb red because it would reflect safety for whomever could be me or someone else visiting or residing in that neighborhood,” Lowell said.