A young woman has died in hospital after she was hit by a runaway car in Soho last night.

Police say the French national, who was 27 years old, passed away at 6:35pm Saturday night in Queen Mary Hospital.

The woman was the worst hit of a total of eight victims in the Friday night crash, caused after a driver neglected to properly secure her Nissan SUV after parking it illegally on a steep Peel Street slope.

The car careened backwards down Peel Street, dragging several people underneath, before smashing into the temple steps at the Staunton Street junction.

The driver, a 44-year-old Filipino working as a Foreign Domestic Helper, has been charged with one count of dangerous driving causing death and will appear at Eastern Magistrates Court on Monday.

The crash has prompted widespread calls for a fresh look at road safety and pedestrianisation in the busy entertainment district, where pedestrians, party-goers and fast-moving vehicles jostle for space on crowded roads and narrow pavements.

As Transit Jam reported earlier, government pledges to pedestrianise the district mysteriously disappeared without trace this month, with the popular walk.hk website replaced with a generic Transport Department page.