Woman hospitalized after being hit by vehicle in East Central Fresno

A woman was rushed to Community Regional Medical Center after being struck by a vehicle near Belmont and Chestnut avenues in East Central Fresno, where Fresno police found her lying in the street unconscious and not breathing with severe injuries to her head and torso.

Officers arrived around 10:30 p.m. Friday and began CPR before fire and emergency medical services responders took over. Police said the woman was then transported to the hospital. A sister station later reported that she was in her forties and remained in critical condition.

The crash shut down the area for several hours while investigators worked the scene and tried to reconstruct what happened. Police have not said what led to the collision, and no details have been released about the vehicle involved, whether speed or impairment played a role, or how the woman ended up in the roadway. Her identity had not been released in the initial report.

The incident turned a busy East Central Fresno intersection into an emergency zone, adding one more example of how serious pedestrian crashes can unfold far from freeways or rural roads. Belmont and Chestnut are major city streets, and a collision there can disrupt neighborhood traffic, emergency access and the normal flow of people moving through the area late at night.

The crash also lands in the middle of Fresno’s broader traffic-safety push. The City of Fresno says it is pursuing a Vision Zero Action Plan aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries, and its data show why that effort has become a local priority: pedestrians accounted for 127 traffic deaths in Fresno between 2018 and 2022, or half of all fatalities in that period.

Recent local crime statistics have added to the concern. Fresno police reviewed end-of-year 2025 numbers showing pedestrian deaths increased compared with the previous year, even as the city reported the murder rate fell to a 51-year low. For residents near Belmont and Chestnut, Friday night’s crash was another reminder that the city’s most dangerous conflicts often happen where people walking and vehicles meet at the street level, not just on high-speed roads.