A 64-year-old San Francisco woman who died in a crash on the southwest coast of Oregon Monday was a longtime Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District bus operator.
Virginia Simpson-Woodson was killed along with a man in another car in the head-on crash, which occurred at about 3:30 p.m. Monday on U.S. Highway 101, north of the small city of Bandon in Coos County, according to Oregon State Police.
Simpson-Woodson was driving south in a Honda Element when 80-year-old Bandon resident Donald William Dodge driving north in a Honda Accord crossed into her path and the cars collided, police said.
Both Simpson-Woodson and Dodge were pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
Simpson-Woodson had worked for the Golden Gate Transportation District as a bus operator for more than 24 years and her retirement was announced at the district’s board of directors meeting on Sep. 21, 2012.
District general manager Denis Mulligan wrote a note honoring Simpson-Woodson, who retired on Sep. 1, 2012 after joining the district in 1987 as a part-time bus operator. She became fulltime in 1991.
According to the retirement announcement, Simpson-Woodson also served as a union official during her tenure and was named “Employee of the Month” in January 1997. She also trained new employees.
Her husband also worked for the district as a bus operator. Other background about Simpson-Woodson in the director’s note included that she was a San Francisco native who went to Washington High School in the Richmond District who went on to study sociology and economics at Sonoma State University. She had one son, who is an attorney.
Mulligan said Simpson-Woodson’s hobbies were fast cars, motorcycles, hiking, skateboarding and boogie boarding and that her retirement plans back in 2012 included joining the South End Rowing Club in the San Francisco Bay, learning golf and archery, and traveling to San Diego
to visit her son and family.
He also mentioned her plans to travel often to Oregon where she owned property and taking her motorcycle on other trips around the country and beyond.
Sasha Lekach, Bay City News
