According to different reports put out over the past week by sfexaminer.com , a few traffic collisions sent many to the emergency room. The most recent occurred over the weekend when a man was struck and killed by vehicle at the intersection of 18th and Mission streets on Saturday morning. Witnesses say a man driving a minivan fled after hitting the victim at around 10:3a.m. In a separate accident involving a pedestrian, an elderly woman was struck by a mail truck on Saturday morning at the intersection of 19th Avenue and Quintara Street in the Sunset district. She was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Last Monday a paratransit van was broadsided in Bernal Heights that morning, sending eight people to the hospital for precautionary reasons.
When you mix high volumes of traffic and large numbers of pedestrians in the same area, such as we have here in many districts in San Francisco, it is inevitable that someone gets hurt. According to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, there were more than 800 collisions involving pedestrians in 2008; pedestrians typically account for half the people killed in traffic collisions in San Francisco; more pedestrians are involved in collisions at intersections, on Fridays, during the month of December between the hours of 3:00p.m. and 6:00p.m; and the leading cause of non-fatal pedestrian injury collisions is motorist failure to yield. Consequently, the SFMTA has begun to implement a variety of measures to improve pedestrian safety, including installing new pedestrian signs, improved crosswalk markings, leading pedestrian signal intervals, pedestrian only signal phases, stop signs, audible pedestrian signals, red zones to improve sight distances, and traffic calming improvements.
If you or a loved one suffered an injury as a pedestrian, please contact our firm for a free consultation today. Our personal injury attorney understands how and why pedestrian accidents occur and is prepared to put the law on your side. After an accident, it is important that you contact our firm promptly so that we can act quickly to protect your rights.