A pedestrian was killed today after being struck by a vehicle on southbound Highway 85 in San Jose, according to the California Highway Patrol. The crash was reported shortly after 1:30 AM near the Camden Avenue off-ramp, prompting officers to shut down all southbound lanes while they investigated.
The driver involved told CHP officers that something struck their vehicle around 1:36 AM while they were traveling in the slow lane, and an off-duty police officer witnessed the crash, according to Johnson Attorneys Group. Responding officers diverted vehicles onto the Camden Avenue off-ramp and temporarily stopped all southbound traffic near the interchange, as reported by NBC Bay Area.
Emergency responders found the pedestrian lying in the highway's slow lane. CHP investigators determined the individual had been walking against the flow of traffic before being struck, per the same account. Southbound traffic was reopened after the crash response, and all lanes were back open by 3:50 AM, according to CHP.
A Familiar, Dangerous Stretch of Freeway
This is not the first predawn fatality near the Camden Avenue and Highway 85 interchange. In July 2023, a driver struck and killed a person riding an electric scooter around 4:20 AM at the same interchange, as Hoodline previously reported. And in August 2020, a 15-year-old girl was killed at 1:30 AM on Highway 85 near Camden Avenue in a crash involving three abandoned stolen vehicles, according to reporting by CBS News.
Walking on California freeways is generally prohibited. Under California Vehicle Code Section 21960, Caltrans and local authorities hold statutory authority to bar pedestrians, bicycles, and other non-motorized traffic from state freeways and expressways, according to Caltrans documentation. That legal restriction underscores why a person on foot in the slow lane of Highway 85 before dawn represents such an acute hazard for drivers and pedestrians alike.
Pedestrian Deaths Stay Flat Even as Overall Crashes Drop
San Jose recorded 41 overall traffic fatalities in 2025, a 16% drop from 49 deaths in 2024 and the city's lowest annual traffic mortality total since 2012, according to SFGATE. But pedestrian fatalities did not follow that downward trend, holding steady at 20 deaths for the year, per the same SFGATE reporting.
The disconnect matters for a city that has staked its transportation policy on eliminating traffic deaths altogether. Under its updated Vision Zero Action Plan, the City of San José set targets to reduce fatal and severe-injury crashes by 30% by 2030 and eliminate all traffic deaths by 2040, according to city transportation officials.
Why Pedestrians End Up on Restricted Freeways
Research from San Jose's own transportation department offers a partial explanation for why people end up walking along high-speed corridors where pedestrian access is barred. A five-year study by the San Jose Department of Transportation found that 51 unhoused residents were killed as pedestrians in traffic collisions between 2018 and 2022, prompting the department to begin sharing data with the county coroner's office.
Countywide, the danger extends well beyond this one interchange. Data from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority shows that 529 people were killed or severely injured in traffic collisions across Santa Clara County in a single year, with pedestrian collisions accounting for 20% of those severe incidents.
Today's fatality also arrives amid a recent string of pedestrian crashes across the city. Just a day earlier, a pedestrian was struck and badly hurt in a South San Jose crash near Tully Road, and in mid-July another pedestrian was fatally struck on West Capitol Expressway in a crash that also hospitalized a driver and children. CHP has not released the identity of the victim in Thursday's Highway 85 crash, and the circumstances that put the pedestrian on the freeway before dawn remain under investigation.
