A man was struck and killed early Thursday on Interstate 280 near Geneva Avenue in San Francisco, and the driver responsible fled the scene, abandoning a Toyota Prius nearby. The California Highway Patrol is now searching for that driver as the investigation into the fatal collision continues.
Emergency dispatchers received a report at 2:25 a.m. of a pedestrian in the center median of the freeway near Geneva Avenue, according to The San Francisco Standard, which cited CHP Officer Mark Andrews. When officers arrived, they found a man who had been struck by a vehicle along with the deserted Prius nearby. Firefighters pronounced him dead just a few minutes later.
The CHP is investigating the collision as a felony hit-and-run, the outlet reported. The victim has not been identified, and it remains unclear why he was walking on the freeway.
Relative Says Driver Admitted Hitting a Pedestrian
The San Francisco Police Department tried to track down the Prius's registered owner in the hours after the crash. CHP logs show that an officer reached a family member of that owner, and the relative allegedly told police that the driver admitted to hitting a pedestrian and was “scared,” per the log cited in the same report.
While investigators believed the driver was still in the immediate area, SFPD deployed a drone during the early morning hours to search for him. A CHP radio feed reviewed by chpfatal.com captured officers noting they had gotten a location ping on Cayuga and were trying to get the driver to respond. Caltrans later reported that all lanes were open and the scene was clear by 4:11 a.m., according to the same feed.
During the investigation, all freeway lanes were diverted at the 19th Avenue off-ramp, snarling early morning traffic before the roadway reopened. Anyone with information about the crash or the driver's whereabouts is asked to call the CHP San Francisco office at 415-276-5300.
Part of a Troubling Pattern on SF Streets
This is not the first fatal freeway strike at this stretch of I-280 this year — a pedestrian died after being hit by a sedan near the same Geneva Avenue on-ramp, with CHP learning of that earlier crash around 12:10 a.m., according to KRON4. Freeway pedestrian deaths have also occurred elsewhere in the Bay Area this year; a 71-year-old man was killed crossing Interstate 80 in Vallejo after being struck by a Tesla operating in Full Self-Driving mode, NBC Bay Area reported, with CHP saying the vehicle was traveling around 70 mph when the pedestrian entered the freeway.
Thursday's death adds to a grim tally for San Francisco this year. There have been 14 other pedestrian deaths in the city so far in 2026, according to the safety group WalkSF, as cited in the Standard's report. Pedestrians make up a disproportionate share of the city's traffic deaths overall — 52.9% of all traffic fatalities, the highest proportion among cities tracked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to a separate Standard analysis.
Still, the city has made real progress by some measures. San Francisco traffic fatalities dropped 42% from 43 in 2024 to 25 in 2025, with pedestrian deaths falling from 24 to 17 over the same period, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis. Traffic injuries also declined, from 3,011 in 2024 to 2,661 in 2025, per preliminary DataSF records cited in that report. The SFMTA tracks these citywide fatality counts as a benchmark for the city's Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths altogether.
For now, the man killed on I-280 remains unidentified, and the driver who left him behind on the freeway has not been found. The CHP's investigation continues.
