Update: Woman ID’d in fatal hit-and-run. It’s Fresno’s third pedestrian death in 11 days

A 56-year-old woman was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash on Tulare Street in Fresno Sunday night, the latest death involving a pedestrian and vehicle.

She was identified Monday by the Fresno County Coroner’s Office as Diana Hernandez of Fresno.

A Fresno police unit was on patrol just before 9 p.m. traveling eastbound on Tulare near Eighth Street when officers came upon cars stopped in the roadway. They maneuvered around the stopped vehicles and found Hernandez laying in the road. They provided first aid until Fresno Fire and EMS arrived on scene.

Hernandez was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene.

“At this point in time, we don’t have any eyewitnesses,” Fresno Police Lt. Sean Biggs said. “We don’t have any information as to what took place. Right now, we’re waiting for a collision reconstruction unit.”

The fatality was the third in the past 11 days in Fresno involving a pedestrian and a vehicle. A 50-year-old woman was struck and killed by a truck on July 14 near Blackstone and Ashlan avenues and a 59-year-old man was killed on July 17 at Belmont Avenue and First Street.

Fresno was identified as the 10th most dangerous city in the United States for pedestrians last week by Smart Growth America, which studies ways to make communities safer.

Traffic safety is a priority for Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama, Biggs said, and a traffic unit was out Sunday night enforcing traffic laws.

“A hit-and-run involving a pedestrian is never a good thing,” Biggs said. ”One is too many. Any time we have something like this occur in the city of Fresno, it’s always tragic. This is somebody’s mother, somebody’s grandmother, potentially, somebody’s sister. We want to try to prevent this.”

This story was originally published July 25, 2022 at 6:48 AM.