An Oakland resident who lost her life when she was run over by a speeding car last year will be honored with a commemorative plaque near the street where she lived.
Last week, the Oakland City Council approved naming the intersection ofFoothill Boulevard and Vicksburg Avenue “Santa Maya Way.” Maya, a Burmese immigrant, lived nearby with her family on Wadean Place.
Maya was a 73-year-old grandmother who immigrated to Oakland early in 2023 to live with her daughter Sanjoo Verma and her family, including son-in-law Anil and granddaughter Arpitha.
During a late Friday evening stroll from a nearby grocery store with her daughter and granddaughter, Maya was struck by a speeding driver while crossing Foothill Boulevard. Maya had briefly dropped something on the ground, causing her to pause for a moment in the road to pick the item up. Sanjoo and her young daughter watched as Maya was thrown in the air by the car. The 42-year-old mom held her mother in her arms on the street as she died
Verma told The Oaklandside that the idea for the commemorative plaque came together soon after District 5 Councilmember Noel Gallo got in touch with the family and attended his mother-in-law’s funeral last year.
“Gallo asked us if we objected to the commemoration and we said we didn’t and that it was our pleasure to have [Santu] be honored. We completed the applications and asked community members to endorse it,” Verma said. “My wife is happy that something is going to be there forever in terms of recognition of her [mother] and what happened.”
Verma told us that the family is doing “OK” a year after the collision. Since they’re a small family, staying together and “comforting each other and being positive” is the only choice they have.
The person who hit Maya was a teenager driving a Black Mercedes and fled the scene but was later arrested by Oakland police investigators. He was charged with manslaughter.
The City Council resolution notes that Maya was “very helpful to everyone and eagerly engaged in community service.”
“She was also a very devoted and religious person. In the short time before she was killed by a hit and run driver, Santu settled into the heart of her family, of her neighborhood and her religious community. It was a joyous time and promised to be a good life,” the resolution reads.
Members of Oakland’s Burmese community will attend the official ceremony
The tragic and consistent nature of road collisions in Oakland has forced city leaders in recent years to pay more attention to prevention efforts and provide public acknowledgement of the loss of life.
For example, all city councilmembers added specific road safety programs to their priorities in the last budget and set aside more funding to fix potholes and build new infrastructure design. The city’s transportation department has also mapped some of the most dangerous roads and intersections to help residents better understand what is happening and how they can make improvements. (Check out our coverage of these maps.)
Maya grew up in the Northern Shan state of upper Burma as part of a large farming family. She suffered the tragic death of her husband from an unknown condition only two months after their daughter Sanjoo was born. Maya became a midwife and village doctor and later adopted another daughter.
She lived with her family in Oakland near the Wentworth area, only a few blocks away from 55th Avenue and International Boulevard. This area of Oakland has seen some of the city’s worst collisions in recent years, including an unauthorized police chase that led to a crash that killed Lolo Soakai, a Samoan American airline worker who was having dinner at a food truck with his family.
Unfortunately, living near some of the city’s most dangerous roads and intersections still means they have to take risks just to travel around their neighborhood.
Verma told us that his wife was recently in their car sitting at a red-light on International Boulevard and 37th Avenue, on her way to pick up their kids, when a driver went around her, ran the light, and collided into three other cars in the middle of the intersection. He said Sanjoo was shaken and that it brought back some of the memories from her mother’s tragic passing.
“Yeah, fear is everywhere. You know, when we drive, there’s always a risk associated with it, right? Whether you are a good driver or bad driver, anybody can come and hit you because there are crazy, drivers everywhere. You can imagine this thing happening again in front of her eyes. I hope someone can do something. It’ll be not for us but for everybody’s safety,” he said.
