Female pedestrian dies resulting from traffic crash in Southeast

A woman died after a driver ran into her late Friday night in the 2700 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, near the St. Elizabeths campus, D.C. police say. The woman was crossing the street around 10:30 p.m. when a 2016 Ford Explorer that was traveling south hit her. She was walking outside of a crosswalk and the driver remained on the scene, according to police.

“DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and transported the pedestrian to an area hospital for severe injuries,” the Metropolitan Police Department said in a release Saturday. “After all life-saving efforts failed, the pedestrian was pronounced dead.” The woman was not immediately identified and police are asking for anyone with knowledge of the crash to contact them at 202-727-9099 to assist with the investigation.

About a dozen people have died in 2019 as a result of traffic crashes, city data indicate. Three other traffic deaths were recorded in Southeast in the past month: one in Anacostia, another in Fort Davis Park on Southern Avenue SE, and a third in Barry Farm at South Capitol Street.

This latest traffic fatality comes as Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration faces mounting public pressure to deliver on the promise of the Vision Zero initiative it launched in 2015. While the initiative calls for the elimination of traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2024, traffic fatalities have risen each year since 2015. In 2018, 36 people died in traffic crashes.

Responding to the uptick in traffic deaths, D.C. officials are pledging to implement various changes to local streets and laws, including potentially banning right turns on red citywide.