The two women who were struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in San Jose last week have been identified.
Narinder Kaur, 75, and Kuljit Kaur, 53, were in a marked crosswalk in the area of Ocala Avenue and Oakton Court, near Alum Rock Middle School, when they were hit at around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, according to police.
A family friend says Kuljit and her two daughters recently arrived in the United States from India.
On a GoFundMe page, Kuljit’s two teenage daughters wrote a note saying they arrived just a week ago to realize their American dream to be with their grandmother but this deadly crash shattered their lives forever.
Donations are coming in fast, topping $70,000 as of Tuesday night, for funeral expenses and for the girls’ future.
“It's really bad,” said Carmen Lopez of San Jose. “I can see cars, they don’t stop, not even a day care on the corner of the street they don’t stop.”
So far pedestrian fatalities have doubled in 2022 over last year and city officials are trying to figure out why.
“This year we’re already up to 26 community members who have lost their lives on our streets. By comparison last year at this time 11 people had died on our streets,” said Colin Heyne, who is a part of Vision Zero for San Jose, a program designed to make streets safe. He said speeding is the number one problem.
Out of the 26 street fatalities, 14 have been pedestrian deaths.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“We think we’re seeing a trend in driving behavior that started during the pandemic when streets were empty,” said Heyne.
The city said it has allocated $6 million to make streets safer over the next two years.
More needs to be done.
“When someone loses their life on our streets it reverberates during society,” said Heyne.
San Jose police released surveillance photos of a red pickup truck believed to be involved in the hit-and-run collision.
Police said the driver was traveling westbound on Ocala Avenue when they hit the women as they were crossing Ocala in a southbound direction.
The driver was last seen traveling northbound on Capitol Expressway, according to police.
Anyone who may have witnessed the incident is asked to contact the San Jose Police Department at 408-277-4654.
