Just after 2 AM last Saturday, a late-night drive on southbound U.S. 101 in Novato turned deadly when a man walking on the Rowland Boulevard off-ramp was struck and killed. First responders arrived to find the pedestrian gravely injured, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The off-ramp was shut down for hours while officers documented the scene and cleared the area. The driver involved pulled over immediately after the collision and stayed on site as the investigation began.
Officials Identify Victim And Driver
According to the Marin Independent Journal, Chief Deputy Coroner Roger Fielding identified the victim as a 46-year-old man who was reportedly unhoused and living in the Novato area. The same report states that the vehicle that hit him was a Toyota Corolla driven by a 22-year-old Novato man. Authorities have not yet said whether impairment, speed, or any other specific factors played a role, and they continue to treat the circumstances as part of an open investigation.
CHP Timeline From CAD Logs
CHP Fatal, which republishes California Highway Patrol computer-aided dispatch logs, shows the first call about a person down on the off-ramp coming in shortly after 2:15 AM. The log notes the closure of the ramp, the response from the coroner, and an evidence tow involving a Toyota. Those entries also confirm that the driver stopped and remained at the scene until officers finished their work and the roadway was cleared. The California Highway Patrol is leading the investigation and is looking into how and why the pedestrian ended up on a high-speed off-ramp in the middle of the night.
Why The Offramp Matters
Rowland Boulevard’s ramps have already been on the radar for traffic engineers and planners, who have been trying to make this stretch of U.S. 101 safer and less chaotic. Recent and planned improvements include ramp metering at Rowland, part of a corridor-wide effort highlighted by Caltrans. Local planning work and safety studies have flagged confusing merge patterns and limited pedestrian access at several Novato interchanges, and officials say changes such as ramp metering are meant to ease congestion while lowering crash risk along the Marin-Sonoma segment of the highway. This latest fatality is certain to intensify questions about how pedestrians are finding their way onto ramps that are built for fast-moving traffic, not foot traffic.
What Comes Next
The California Highway Patrol is continuing to piece together the events that led up to the collision and to determine what brought the pedestrian onto the off-ramp before dawn. The Marin Independent Journal first reported details of the case, and officials say more information will be released as the investigation moves forward. Anyone who may have seen the man on or near the ramp, or who has other information about the crash, is urged to contact the CHP office handling the incident.
