Activists urge for change after 2 pedestrians struck, killed in 10 days on SF's Lombard Street

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) - Big yellow signs now mark two locations along San Francisco's Lombard Street.

Earlier this month, a middle-aged man and an elderly woman were killed by drivers in two separate incidents within 10 days.

Editor's Note: The bill mentioned in the video played above was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday.

"People drive in countries all over the world, but the U.S. is an outlier in terms of the rate of death and serious injury on our roads," said State Senator Scott Wiener.

Wiener has for years pushed legislators in Sacramento to enact new laws making streets more pedestrian friendly.

On Friday, he held a news conference to urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would require new cars to have technology installed in them that would alert drivers if they were going 10 miles or more over the speed limit.

It was measure that Jodie Medeiros of Walk San Francisco said would save lives.

"We don't want another person to never come home, never be at the dinner table, never get to go to their kid's soccer game or their daughter's wedding," she said.

It was announced that Newsom vetoed the bill on Saturday.

During Friday's event, Wiener also took time to celebrate Newsom signing into law a second bill earlier in the morning.

The bill will improve infrastructure on state routes around California.

Some of those upgrades could be as simple as putting in a crosswalk on roads that need them.

Others would be more intricate, with Wiener saying whatever improvements are made depended on each individual road.

"It could be just traffic calming measures to try and slow down traffic. It could be shortening crossing distances," Wiener said.

Wiener says he knows the bills won't stop every death from happening.

But with 4,000 traffic-related fatalities occurring every year around the state, he believes something needs to change.

"Those 4,000 deaths do not include all the people who now have brain damage, who are quadriplegics, who have lost a leg," Wiener said.