A pedestrian died yesterday after being struck on southbound Highway 101 just north of the Holly Street off-ramp in San Carlos, in a crash that also involved two passenger cars. The collision happened around 2:44 AM, when first responders arrived to find the pedestrian suffering from major injuries. That person was later pronounced dead, and investigators say they had not yet determined the exact manner in which the crash occurred.
According to Pacific Attorney Group, the pedestrian had been walking back and forth in the traffic lanes of southbound Highway 101 before being hit. The California Highway Patrol, which reported the fatal collision, located a gray Kia Telluride near the scene, while a white Dodge Challenger involved in the crash sustained moderate front-end damage. The outlet's report does not specify which vehicle struck the pedestrian, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Why the pedestrian was in the active travel lanes at that hour remains an open question for investigators, according to the same report. It's also unclear whether a disabled vehicle played any role, or whether roadway lighting or vehicle speeds contributed to the crash — details that typically factor into how California Highway Patrol investigators evaluate freeway pedestrian collisions. Under California Vehicle Code Section 21960, Caltrans and local authorities can prohibit pedestrians from freeways and expressways, though the law carves out an exception allowing occupants of disabled vehicles to walk to the nearest exit for help.
A Dangerous Stretch With a Documented History
This isn't the first fatal crash near this interchange. In November 2024, a 31-year-old Palo Alto bicyclist was killed by a vehicle on Holly Street near the same Highway 101 overpass, a crash in which the driver stayed at the scene and cooperated with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office Major Accident Investigation Team, as reported by CBS News. State collision records paint a broader picture of risk at the junction: between January 2019 and March 2026, the site logged 266 total crash reports, including 92 that resulted in injuries, per the Crash CCRS Database. The interchange's complex on- and off-ramps and heavy merge traffic serving San Mateo Peninsula commuters help explain that volume.
Regionally, the trend has been moving in the wrong direction for years. UC Berkeley's Transportation Injury Mapping System recorded 2,543 injury and fatal crashes across San Mateo County in 2023, up from 1,994 in 2020, according to data reported by The Weekly Driver. Highway 101 functions as the central vehicular spine connecting San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and that steady traffic has made safety upgrades along the corridor a persistent local priority.
City and State Efforts to Redesign the Interchange
San Carlos and Caltrans have been working for years on short, mid, and long-term pedestrian safety plans for the Highway 101/Holly Street junction, including a proposed Class I pedestrian and bicycle overcrossing bridge, according to the City of San Carlos. That overcrossing project was originally shelved in 2019 to make way for Caltrans's Highway 101 Express Lanes project before being revived. Last year, the city and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority gathered public input on three mid-term design alternatives, including potential median adjustments and upgraded ramp crossings, while long-term overcrossing plans continued to be updated. The transportation authority had already approved Measure A and W funding back in December 2021 to help leverage grants for multimodal safety updates at the site.
The San Carlos crash also lands amid a broader, more encouraging statewide statistic. Preliminary figures from the California Transportation Commission indicate pedestrian fatalities across California dropped an estimated 22.4 percent between 2024 and 2025, falling from 1,067 deaths to roughly 828, a decline state officials attributed to corridor safety projects, Complete Streets workshops, and targeted enforcement, according to Citizen Portal. Nationally, 7,080 pedestrians were struck and killed in traffic crashes in 2024, with roughly 60 percent of those deaths occurring on roads without sidewalks, per the California Department of Public Health. September and October are designated as California and National Pedestrian Safety Months to promote infrastructure improvements meant to address exactly that kind of danger.
Freeway pedestrian fatalities aren't unique to the Peninsula. Just days before the San Carlos crash, a 67-year-old man was struck and killed after stepping into traffic lanes on southbound Highway 101 in Ventura County during the evening, hit by a pickup truck, according to KEYT. In both cases, investigators are working to piece together why someone ended up on foot in active freeway lanes, and whether visibility or vehicle speed played a role. In San Carlos, the California Highway Patrol's investigation remains open, and no additional details about the identities of those involved have been released.
