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San Mateo advocate urges Foster City to release details after pedestrian death at Costco crosswalk
Summary
A Safe Streets advocate told the Foster City Traffic Review Committee the city has remained silent about the November death of Varun Sharma at a Costco crosswalk and urged officials to disclose whether the driver was located and what steps will be taken to prevent future crashes.
Mike Swire, a Safe Streets advocate who identified himself as a San Mateo resident, used the meeting’s public forum to press Foster City for information about a November pedestrian death he said occurred at the Costco crosswalk.
“The city issue any type of press release, any discussion, anything from the city council, on the death of Varun Sharma who died in a crosswalk in front of Costco in November,” Swire said, adding that he has had difficulty obtaining details from police and public works. He asked whether the driver had been located and whether the city was doing due diligence to make the crossing safer.
Swire contrasted Foster City’s response with San Mateo’s recent practice, saying that when San Mateo had a pedestrian fatality it released a police notice and a council statement within a day. “A lot of people are very concerned with the safety of streets and the fact that so many people are getting hit and and badly hurt, if not killed, on Foster City streets,” he said.
The transcript records the public comment and an acknowledgment by staff that there were no emailed public comments for this meeting; the committee did not take any formal action in response to Swire’s remarks during the session. City staff did not make additional comments on the record at the meeting about the investigation, the identity or status of any driver, or planned countermeasures; those details were not specified in the record.
