Bicyclist Death on Santa Clara County Expressway
Not even two weeks after news broke of a bicyclist fatality in Sunnyvale, the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office has identified 64-year-old Thanh Hoang as the latest bicycle crash victim who died on Saturday in San Jose on Capitol Expressway. Early reports show that Hoang was riding on the shoulder around 9:30 a.m. when a silver 2002 Nissan Sentra “crashed into him.” In the wake of this tragedy our thoughts are with the victim’s friends and family.SVBC is in the process of gathering more information from City and County staff and will be sure to update you as further details become available. Regrettably, Hoang’s death is the first fatality of a person riding a bike in San Jose in 2018, and the City’s fifth traffic fatality of the year.While the collision took place in the City of San Jose, all expressways such as Capitol Expressway fall under the jurisdiction of Santa Clara County, and therefore close consultation between City and County staff is necessary to implement roadway safety improvements. In 2015, the City of San Jose adopted a Vision Zero policy and designated Capitol Expressway as a Safety Priority Street, one of 14 major streets in San Jose that have the highest frequency of fatal and severe injuries due to traffic collisions. Through our advocacy efforts with partners and the City, SVBC was instrumental in adapting Vision Zero to meet local needs and continues to advise policymakers on its action plan as member of the stakeholder group. In particular, the two-year action plan calls for prioritizing improvements along Safety Priority Streets – such as Capitol Expressway – by focusing on engineering, education and enforcement. In light of this recent bike fatality, SVBC looks forward to working with the City of San Jose and County officials to address safety on this corridor.If you live, work, or play in San Jose and are interested in keeping up to date on this issue, or other biking issues in the city, please email me at Ben@bikesiliconvalley.org with San Jose in the subject line or join the San Jose Local Team.