A 59-year-old woman was struck and killed while trying to fix a broken axle on her Schwinn bicycle along the shoulder of Franklin Boulevard in South Sacramento, and the driver who hit her kept going south without ever stopping. Her boyfriend watched it happen. The California Highway Patrol is now searching for the driver and the vehicle involved in the crash.
According to the FOX40 News report, the woman had been riding north on Franklin Boulevard within the southbound shoulder, towing a trailer behind her Schwinn, when the axle broke. She stopped and parked north of 48th Avenue to try to fix it. That's when, per CHP, an unknown vehicle struck her. The driver continued south on Franklin Boulevard without stopping, leaving her boyfriend, who witnessed the collision, to watch the vehicle disappear down the road. She was taken to a hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
Investigators recovered physical evidence at the scene that could help identify the vehicle involved. CHP officers found a right front wheel well liner and a broken piece of plastic near where the woman was struck, and according to CHP, that debris is associated with a 2014-2024 Infiniti Q50. The woman's boyfriend, however, described the vehicle to investigators as an older model pickup truck, and neither account has been confirmed as the vehicle CHP is now searching for.
A Corridor With a Troubled Safety Record
The stretch of Franklin Boulevard where the woman died sits just south of where a $20 million Complete Streets overhaul wrapped up in July, adding protected bike lanes and improved lighting along 1.5 miles of the corridor between Sutterville Road and 32nd Avenue, according to Abridged. Those upgrades, which community leaders and business owners pushed for over a decade, stopped short of 48th Avenue, leaving the section where the fatal crash occurred without the same protections.
This isn't the first time this section of Franklin Boulevard has seen violence against a vulnerable road user. A female pedestrian was hospitalized with critical injuries on January 27, 2026, after a hit-and-run crash near 52nd Avenue, just four blocks south of where the cyclist was killed, as reported by ABC10. California Highway Patrol investigated that earlier incident after a passerby found the injured victim lying in the street. And on August 15, Hoodline reported a pedestrian was critically injured near Franklin and MLK when struck by two vehicles, with one driver fleeing the scene while the second stayed to cooperate.
Bicycle Deaths Mounting Across the County
The fatal crash arrives amid a documented spike in cycling deaths across Sacramento County. In August, the Sacramento County Bicycle Advisory Committee presented a report to the Board of Supervisors showing 10 bicyclists had been killed on local roadways in 2026 alone, part of a five-year total of 158 pedestrian and bicyclist deaths countywide, according to CBS Sacramento. Local bicycle advocates presented the findings to demand urgent infrastructure safety improvements.
Franklin Boulevard itself is designated as part of the City of Sacramento's Vision Zero High Injury Network, a classification reserved for major arterials with a persistent history of severe pedestrian and vehicle collisions. The program's stated goals for flagged corridors include reducing travel lanes, lowering speed limits, and adding safer crossings. Statewide, bicycle fatalities hit a decade high of 183 in 2022 before dropping to 145 in 2023, with roughly 88% of fatal bicycle crashes occurring on urban roadways, per data compiled by UC Berkeley's SafeTREC from the California Highway Patrol's SWITRS database.
What the Law Says About Fleeing and Passing Cyclists
Under California Vehicle Code § 20001, fleeing the scene of a crash that causes death or severe injury is a felony punishable by two to four years in state prison and up to $10,000 in fines, with a mandatory five-year sentence enhancement if the flight follows a vehicular manslaughter. California law requires all drivers to stop immediately, render aid, and exchange information regardless of fault.
The state's Three Feet for Safety Act, codified as CVC § 21760, requires motorists passing a bicycle traveling in the same direction to give at least three feet of clearance or slow to a safe speed until they can pass safely. Separately, CVC § 21200 grants bicyclists the same legal rights and responsibilities as motor vehicle drivers, while CVC § 21650.1 explicitly permits bicycles to travel on roadway shoulders, meaning the woman was legally within her rights to stop where she did.
Sacramento has seen hit-and-run cases involving cyclists resolved before. In October 2024, police arrested a 53-year-old driver on suspected DUI and hit-and-run charges after a fatal collision involving a bicyclist in Sacramento, a case Hoodline covered in detail after officers tracked down that suspect. Whether investigators will be able to do the same here remains unknown; CHP has not said whether the debris matching a 2014-2024 Infiniti Q50 or the boyfriend's description of an older pickup truck will lead them to the driver responsible.
The South Sacramento CHP office is asking anyone with information about the crash or the vehicle involved to call 916-897-5600.
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