Fewer people are being killed by cars, but "Vision Zero" remains elusive | Joshua Emerson Smith

<p>Laramie Logan answered the door at her Coronado home one afternoon in early December to be greeted by a chaplain with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.<br /> “He told me the devastating news that my brother was hit by a car and didn’t make it,” said the 40-year-old mother of three. “I just dropped to my knees and cried.”<br /> Her brother, David Henry Hill, was one of 24 pedestrians killed in traffic-related accidents in the city of San Diego last year — compared to 25 in 2016 after the city first pledged to eliminate such fatalities as part of the nationwide Vision Zero campaign.<br /> Lt. Cmdr. David Henry Hill, 37, was killed crossing India Street near West Olive Street and an off-ramp from north I-5 in Bankers Hill on Dec. 2, 2019.(Courtesy of Laramie Logan)<br /> The city has invested in a number of safety improvements in recent years, overhauling dozens of streets and crosswalks at crash-prone intersections, as well as launching a public awareness campaign.<br /> Those efforts appear to be paying off to a certain degree. In 2019, officials recorded the lowest number of traffic-related deaths and injuries, including motorists, in the last four years, according to data from the San Diego Police Department.<br /> That comes after a bloody 2018 when pedestrian deaths and injuries spiked to 127 up from 92 the previous year.</p>