A man struck while crossing Blossom Hill Road near Thornwood Drive on Aug. 13 died six days later, becoming San Jose's 29th traffic death and 15th pedestrian death of 2026 — and at least the second person killed on foot on the road's Oakridge-area stretch since 2024, a segment none of the city's funded safety projects reach.

San Jose has labeled Blossom Hill Road a Vision Zero "Priority Safety Corridor" and lined up two rounds of fixes for it — a 2025 repaving-and-restriping project and a roughly $800,000 joint effort with Los Gatos to slow traffic. Both sit on the road's central and western reaches. The recent pedestrian deaths happened well to the east, out by the Oakridge mall, outside either project's limits. It's a pointed question for a city that keeps promising safer streets: which blocks get fixed first, and who decides?

San Jose police said Friday that a pedestrian struck earlier this month on Blossom Hill Road had died — the city's 29th traffic fatality and 15th pedestrian death of 2026.

The man was crossing near Thornwood Drive, beside the Westfield Oakridge mall, on the night of Aug. 13 when an eastbound 2005 Acura struck him, police said. The driver stayed and was cooperating with investigators. The pedestrian was hospitalized and died Wednesday, six days later. His name is pending release by the county coroner.

Los Gatos Councilmember Maria Ristow said residents "deserve to be heard and (have) their needs addressed."

It is not the first time someone on foot has been killed on this run of road. In July 2024, a man crossing Blossom Hill near Snell Avenue — under a mile east of Thornwood — was hit by a left-turning car and later died, CBS Bay Area reported (external source, opens in a new tab); he was that year's 17th pedestrian death. The road has a long ledger: between 2018 and 2023, six people were killed and 32 severely injured on the San Jose portion of Blossom Hill Road, and the city logged roughly 500 collisions on it from 2018 to 2022, San José Spotlight reported (external source, opens in a new tab).

That record is why the city flagged Blossom Hill Road as a Vision Zero Priority Safety Corridor and drew up fixes. One is a 2025 safety-improvements project (external source, opens in a new tab) folded into the pavement program — narrower lanes, protected bike lanes, upgraded signal heads and high-visibility crosswalks — running from Camden Avenue to Meridian Avenue. The other is a roughly $800,000 traffic-calming effort with neighboring Los Gatos, paid for mostly by a $640,000 federal Safe Streets for All grant, covering a 1.7-mile stretch between Camden and Union avenues.

Both sit on the road's central and western reaches. The two pedestrians died east of there, out by Oakridge in the 95123 ZIP code — outside either footprint.

The councilmembers behind the projects frame the trade-off plainly. "Anytime a decision comes down to saving lives, slowing down traffic, or causing someone to drive five miles an hour faster to get to their destination quicker, I'm always going to come down on the side of saving lives," District 9 Councilmember Pam Foley told San José Spotlight. Los Gatos Councilmember Maria Ristow said residents "deserve to be heard and (have) their needs addressed."

The Aug. 13 death doesn't dispute that logic — it sharpens it. Fifteen pedestrians have now died on San Jose streets before September. The city adopted Vision Zero in 2015 with a pledge to end traffic deaths, a goal it has since pushed to 2040. Getting there means the corridors it labels a "priority" have to be fixed where people are actually being killed — not just where the striping trucks reach first. Anyone with information is asked to contact SJPD Detective DelliCarpini at 408-277-4654.