Fewer people are being killed by cars, but "Vision Zero" remains elusive | Joshua Emerson Smith

Laramie Logan answered the door at her Coronado home one afternoon in early December to be greeted by a chaplain with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office. “He told me the devastating news that my brother was hit by a car and didn’t make it,” said the 40-year-old mother of three. “I just dropped to my knees and cried.” Her brother, David Henry Hill, was one of 24 pedestrians killed in traffic-related accidents in the city of San Diego last year — compared to 25 in 2016 after the city first pledged to eliminate such fatalities as part of the nationwide Vision Zero campaign. Lt. Cmdr. David Henry Hill, 37, was killed crossing India Street near West Olive Street and an off-ramp from north I-5 in Bankers Hill on Dec. 2, 2019.(Courtesy of Laramie Logan) The city has invested in a number of safety improvements in recent years, overhauling dozens of streets and crosswalks at crash-prone intersections, as well as launching a public awareness campaign. Those efforts appear to be paying off to a certain degree. In 2019, officials recorded the lowest number of traffic-related deaths and injuries, including motorists, in the last four years, according to data from the San Diego Police Department. That comes after a bloody 2018 when pedestrian deaths and injuries spiked to 127 up from 92 the previous year.