A 68-year-old woman suffered severe head injuries Thursday evening after a car turning left struck her while she was crossing in a marked crosswalk in San Diego's Carmel Valley neighborhood, according to police. The collision happened at 5:40 p.m. at the intersection of Del Mar Trails Road and Carmel Creek Road, and the woman was rushed to a hospital following the crash.
Police said a 76-year-old woman was driving a Honda Fit westbound on Del Mar Trails Road when she entered the intersection and turned left onto southbound Carmel Creek Road, striking the 68-year-old pedestrian who was crossing in the south crosswalk off Del Mar Trails Road, according to ABC 10News. Investigators have not determined that alcohol was a factor in the crash, and the victim's name had not been released as of Thursday evening.
A Road Residents Had Already Flagged as Risky
The stretch of Del Mar Trails Road has drawn complaints for months. Just weeks before this crash, Carmel Valley residents raised alarms over broken streetlights and speeding vehicles along the corridor, pointing to a history of drivers blowing through stop signs and prior pedestrian collisions there, according to CBS 8. The same report found that the City of San Diego's streetlight repair backlog through its Get It Done system had stretched to an average of 480 days in 2026, driven by electrician staffing shortages and high demand for service citywide.
Under California Vehicle Code Section 21950, drivers approaching or turning at an intersection are legally required to yield the right-of-way, slow down, and exercise due care for pedestrians crossing in a marked or unmarked crosswalk, as reported by the Shouse Law Group. That statute governs exactly the kind of left-turn scenario police described at Del Mar Trails and Carmel Creek roads, though no determination of fault has been made public.
Not the First Serious Crash on This Corridor
This is not the first time the area has seen a severe collision. In February 2024, a 63-year-old bicyclist suffered a brain hemorrhage and other severe injuries when a vehicle made an unsafe right turn across a bike lane in the 12300 block of Carmel Creek Road, San Diego Patch reported at the time. More recently, in April 2025, a pedestrian walking a dog was struck and killed by a vehicle in Carmel Valley, a case that ABC 10News said intensified ongoing community concern over pedestrian safety in the neighborhood.
The pattern extends beyond this one neighborhood. A 2024 report from Circulate San Diego titled Vision Zero at Ten Years found that non-motorist traffic fatalities citywide rose from 25 in 2014 to 37 in 2023, missing San Diego's decade-old pledge to eliminate pedestrian and bicyclist deaths entirely. Regional data compiled by SANDAG's Vision Zero Action Plan shows that 54 percent of all fatal and severe-injury crashes across San Diego County happen on a concentrated Safety Focus Network that makes up just 6 percent of the region's roadways.
The City of San Diego's Transportation Department does conduct annual high-crash evaluations, prioritizing signal and crosswalk upgrades for intersections that see five or more collisions or significant pedestrian injuries, according to Inside San Diego.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about Thursday's crash to contact the San Diego Police Department or Crime Stoppers, which can be reached at 888-580-8477. The organization operates a 24/7 anonymous tip system by phone and through its P3 Tips app, offering cash rewards for information leading to felony arrests in ongoing investigations, according to San Diego County Crime Stoppers.
