Families for Safe Streets to Honor 1,343 Traffic Violence Victims at San Diego World Day of Remembrance

The families and friends of people killed or seriously injured in traffic crashes will gather Sunday in Mission Valley to honor their loved ones and call for action to prevent future tragedies as part of the annual World Day of Remembrance.

The public is invited to join Families for Safe Streets San Diego on Sunday, November 15, at 9:30 a.m. at Grant Park, 2310 Camino Del Rio North. More information is available at Circulate San Diego’s event page.

Now in its fifth year, the San Diego event brings together families affected by traffic violence, transportation advocates and elected officials to remember those whose lives have been changed by crashes.

“1,343 people have been seriously injured or killed in our county in traffic deaths in just 2025. These crashes are largely preventable,” says Laura Keenan, the founder of the San Diego chapter of Families for Safe Streets. “And behind every number is a family and a story and a life that was cut too short. And we are there to share that…Hopefully, our grief can be turned into something that can save lives in the future.”

Keenan became actively involved in the effort to make streets safer after her husband, Matt, was killed while riding his bicycle to the movies. She founded the local chapter of Families for Safe Streets as part of her efforts. The organization is part of a national network and brings together people who have lost loved ones or survived serious traffic crashes.

Grant Park was chosen to host the event because of its proximity to several “Fatal 15 Intersections.” The fatal 15 were identified by the advocates in 2017 based on local crash data involving severe injuries and fatalities. Created to support San Diego’s Vision Zero initiative in 2017, the list prioritizes high-risk crossings for immediate, low-cost infrastructure upgrades, such as high-visibility crosswalks, leading pedestrian intervals, and protected bike lanes, to prevent future traffic deaths.

The purpose of the rally isn’t just to commemorate those that have lost their lives, but to push the city council to increase funding for the types of programs and projects that will make streets safer. It’s been over a decade since the city declared Vision Zero and an all-out effort to reduce traffic deaths to zero, and the numbers haven’t changed much.

Which is not to say that there is no institutional support for this effort. Mayor Todd Gloria and school board member Shannon Hazen will speak at the observance. Last week, city council formally adopted a proclamation declaring November 15, 2026, World Day of Remembrance in San Diego. 

In 2025, 92 people were killed and another 398 seriously injured in traffic crashes in the City of San Diego. “These are not statistics, but 490 real people with families, friends, and loved ones whose lives are forever changed,” wrote Circulate San Diego in a statement announcing the event.

Following the gathering, volunteers will fan out across San Diego to place 245 memorial signs at locations where people have been killed or seriously injured in crashes. The signs are intended to make the human cost of traffic violence visible to people traveling through the city.

“That’s just a small percentage of deaths and injuries that happened in San Diego County,” Keenan said of the signs. “But it is a meaningful way of showing that this is happening across every community. Safety is not an isolated issue.”

While 2026 crash data is not fully available, Bike SD has been tracking crashes as they are reported through state and local channels on a newly-created Vision Zero Dashboard. Bike SD hopes that combining advocacy and data, politicians and decision makers will place higher priority on funding safe streets.

“We hear a lot of promises about making the streets safer, and surely there have been a lot of strides taken toward that end,” says Joe Hajjar, a Bike SD Volunteer who worked on creating the dashboard. “But I think this is a way for advocates to help keep politicians accountable for the promises they make.”

World Day of Remembrance is observed internationally each November to honor people killed and injured in traffic crashes and call for policies that prevent future deaths. For Families for Safe Streets San Diego, the day is both a memorial and an opportunity to remind elected officials that traffic violence is not inevitable. For more on how World Day of Remembrance is commemorated across the country, visit this article from Streetsblog USA.