A 70-year-old man died early Monday morning after stepping into traffic on El Cajon Boulevard in North Park and being struck by a car, according to San Diego police. The man had been standing on the south sidewalk near 30th Street shortly before 5:30 a.m. when he moved into the roadway for reasons investigators have not been able to determine.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the collision happened on El Cajon Boulevard near 30th Street in North Park. A separate report from FOX 5 San Diego pins down the exact spot as the south sidewalk of 3000 El Cajon Blvd., where the man was standing just before 5:30 a.m. before he stepped into the street.
Police said a 66-year-old man was driving a 2006 Mercedes sedan eastbound on El Cajon Boulevard when he struck the pedestrian. For reasons that remain unclear, the 70-year-old had moved off the sidewalk and into the driver's path, per the same report. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigation Still in Early Stages
San Diego police traffic units are handling the investigation, the station's report notes, and no additional details about the man's identity have been made public. The circumstances that led him into the roadway before dawn have not been explained by investigators.
This is not the first fatal pedestrian crash reported along the same corridor. In an earlier, unrelated incident, a 61-year-old pedestrian was killed after being struck by a vehicle in San Diego's El Cerrito neighborhood, with that collision happening around 8:43 p.m. in the 6000 block of El Cajon Boulevard, per FOX 5 San Diego.
North Park has also seen deadly crashes closer to Monday's location. A 62-year-old woman was fatally struck while crossing El Cajon Boulevard near Hamilton Street, according to NBC 7 San Diego. In that case, a 2020 Volkswagen Passat was traveling eastbound in the 2600 block of El Cajon Boulevard when it struck the woman around 11:40 p.m. Friday as she crossed from north to south at the intersection.
A Citywide Pattern of Rising Deaths
The North Park crash comes amid a broader citywide trend showing traffic deaths climbing even as police make fewer stops. San Diego initiated 62,071 traffic stops in 2024, a 56.9% reduction from 2014, according to KPBS. Over that same period, the city recorded 115 traffic deaths in 2024, an increase of 47.4% from the 78 fatalities logged in 2014.
KPBS also reports that San Diego has recorded more than 100 traffic deaths every year since 2020, with fatalities peaking at 124 in 2022. Those figures are citywide totals and do not point to a crash trend specific to North Park or El Cajon Boulevard.
City officials have pointed to targeted safety efforts elsewhere in San Diego. The City of San Diego's Traffic Engineering team conducts an annual, data-driven review meant to prioritize locations for safety improvements, and its most recent evaluation identified 14 such locations, with work already underway at several intersections, according to a city planning document.
