Newly released dash-cam video shows the moment a Tesla went speeding through an intersection in the Tenderloin on Sunday, fatally striking 39-year-old Benjamin Dean and gravely injuring his wife of three years, Kelly Dean.
As KPIX/CBS SF reports, the Deans were married at San Francisco City hall in July 2016, and had come to town to celebrate their third anniversary this past weekend when tragedy struck. A public Facebook post by Kelly the day of the collision suggests that they may have just come from the Museum of Ice Cream in the hours or minutes before the crash — happy photos show the couple in the sprinkle pool. The MOIC is just four blocks away from the site of the crash, on O'Farrell Street.
Kelly Dean remains hospitalized at SF General, and was listed in critical condition as of Monday.
ABC 7 obtained dash-cam footage from an Uber traveling down O'Farrell about a half block away from the intersection at the moment of impact. The video shows the Tesla coming up Taylor Street, running a red light, clipping a Mini Cooper, and colliding with pedestrians just entering the crosswalk on the far side of O'Farrell. The clip ends before showing the car's impact with the couple, but it does show that Kelly Dean tried to protect her husband, putting an arm out to push him back as the car approaches them, because she may have been the first to see it coming.
The driver of the Tesla, 21-year-old Kelsey Mariah Cambridge, was booked Sunday by the SFPD on charges of involuntary vehicular manslaughter and running a red light.
As KPIX and others have pointed out, Cambridge was renting the Tesla on Getaround, which has a stated policy that such "specialty" vehicles can only be rented by users 25 and older.
Activists with Walk San Francisco held a rally at City Hall at 9 a.m. this morning, protesting the fact that this was the 14th pedestrian fatality in the city so far this year.
"We are in a crisis," says District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, speaking to ABC 7. "We are in a state of emergency and it's time that the city recognize that."
Haney has suggested narrowing streets, eliminating lanes, and installing speed and red-light cameras in the Tenderloin neighborhood.
Previously: Two-Car Collision In Tenderloin Kills Husband, Injures Wife In Crosswalk