Let’s not get into any “it had to happen” stuff here. It didn’t have to happen. But it did. A 53-year-old Twilight fan was struck by a car as she rushed across Harbor Drive to get a spot in line for Thursday morning’s panel, and later died from her injuries.

The woman was in a crosswalk and tried to run across Harbor toward the convention center against the light about 9:20 a.m., said Sgt. Ron Glass.

The driver of one car saw her and slowed down, but the driver of a Subaru Outback didn’t see her in time, Glass said. The pedestrian tried to stop her own momentum when she saw the oncoming Subaru but ended up tripping into the car, Brown said.

An ambulance took the unconscious woman, who was bleeding profusely from her head, to a hospital where she died, Brown said.


Twi-hards have been camped out since Sunday in order to get a seat at the last ever Twilight panel. While the woman’s name hasn’t been released until her family is notified, her fellow Twilight fans are already mourning her on Twitter. The above picture is believed to be her with friends camping out.

It isn’t clear from the UT San Diego’s account why she was running across the street against the light on a busy highway, so until all the facts are out, let’s not make assumptions.

Friends of fan “G,” as she’s being called, are already planning a memorial and calling for a moment of silence at the panel Thursday.

With the pre-existing animosity of the “Twilight ruined Comic-Con” faction, this horribly sad and tragic event will doubtless be the subject of even more scrutiny and vitriol. As we’ve noted over the years, Camp Twilight is a peaceful, fun, engaged part of the fan experience, and this sad event shouldn’t overshadow that. At the same time, the levels of fan hysteria that are taking over the ENTIRE Comic-Con experience should be looked at. It just isn’t worth dying for.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Very sad news, indeed. My sympathies to the family.

    This is part of what authorities and services fear in the midst of a major crowd control situation. Just too many variables and too many potential problems with too many people.

  2. “to get a spot in line for Thursday morning’s panel, and lated died from her injuries.”
    Is contradictory to
    “It isn’t clear from the UT San Diego’s account why she was running across the street against the light on a busy highway, so until all the facts are out let’s not make assumptions. ”

    Based on the picture she already had a spot, and was probably coming back from a food or bathroom run. This is probably going to get reported alot as being somehow tied to Twilight craze rather than just bad street crossing behavior.

  3. Whoops, just read the linked article and according to that it was to get back to the line because it was shifting position. Yikes.

  4. This would seem to be the important paragraph?

    “Comic-Con fans said the woman, who was with a group, had been in line since Sunday for the “Twilight” panel. They said the convention center staff was about to switch the line, so the beginning became the end, and that the pedestrian was running to keeping her place in line.”

    I want to hear more about this aspect of the story…

    My condolences to the family of “G”

    -B

  5. God, how horrible.

    I remember the fun of lining up to get into concerts, the anticipation, the friends you’d make in line–I hope that comics folks can drop the snark aimed at Twilight fans and remember what that feels like. That’s what a convention is supposed to be, a collection of people sharing the things they love.

    That poor woman, and the horrible pall this must have cast over everyone there. So sad and awful and just plain tragic.

  6. “At the same time, the levels of fan hysteria that are taking over the ENTIRE Comic-con experience should be looked at. It just isn’t worth dying for.”

    Co-sign. When I went to SDCC back in 2007 (I think?), it seemed like the fan hysteria was getting out of control. Saying it “had to happen,” is nonsense, as you point out, but things have been heading in this direction for a while. Nothing good can come from large groups of people gathering to wait for free access to something really popular.

    I’ve long felt the movie stuff needs to be its own convention or assigned seating tickets should be sold to the movie panels…basically anything other than the barely contained chaos of first come, first served way of doing things.

  7. Keep in mind, too, that this happened a day and a half before Preview Night. Now I’m not in San Diego (not going to the show this year), but I’d imagine that there are not hysterical tons of people crowding the streets just yet and that police presence is limited, too.

    If that’s true then this may not be an example of poor crowd control but instead just an example of a woman who was overly-excited and made a poor, unlucky, distracted attempt to cross the street.

    Either way, it’s unbelievably awful.

  8. Goddamn that’s horrible. What should’ve been a fun moment ends in tragedy. I’ve read from a couple of places that she tripped into the car. It’s so horrible. Not to mention what the driver must be going through. Very sad.

  10. “G” was a beautiful soul and a precious friend!! My daughter and I are heartbroken, at this…We had the honor of meeting and getting to know her at the Twilight Convention, last year, in Los Angeles….She will be mourned and missed!!

  11. And Jackie Haas wins the idiot award. Didn’t even take 10 comments before someone popped in to poke fun. For shame.

  14. So very tragic and sad to have this happen. :(

    If she had friends in line, I imagine she wasn’t going to lose her spot over a shifting line. It sounds like it was just incredibly bad luck trying to cross a very busy road. As others have pointed out this early before the convention there isn’t any crowd control or police to deal with the traffic is early before the convention.

  15. So tragic. So sorrowful and sad to travel across the country in fandom of a thing you love, and have it all end like this.

    My condolences and deepest sympathies to her family and friends.

    [And forgive me— I can’t help but put on the Eliison/Gaiman/Moore/Morrison cap and think of what chthonic energies are at play to extract a cost such as this, on the onset of all that’s to come in the next 5 days…]

  17. Such sad news.

    I hope this story doesn’t go away. We don’t know what happened, but if you’ve been to Comic-Con, esp. on a Saturday, you know this feels like something closeby.

    I hope that when I’m 53, I am still going to Comic Con. She is awesome for that.

  18. Maybe out of respect for the fan’s tragic death, SDCC shoud just go ahead and CANCEL the Twilight panel?

    Before anyone else (may) get hurt?