Victim of Muni Pedestrian Crash a Former Oakland Tribune Reporter

Photo courtesy of the Oakland Tribune.

Bill Brand, a former longtime reporter for the Oakland Tribune, was the victim of last night’s crash involving an N-Judah train at 2nd and King Streets. We don’t know many details but Brand was walking when he was struck shortly after 9 p.m. He’s reported to be in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital.

According to the Mercury News:

In his career with the
Tribune, Brand covered a host of topics for the newspaper, including
crime and science. After leaving the paper in July, he has continued to
write a regular beer column titled “What’s on Tap,” which appears in
the Mercury News.

It’s pretty rare that we see the faces of pedestrians who are the victims of crashes in San Francisco in the local media. Streetsblog San Francisco is making an effort to do that to counter the blame-the-victim mentality that is so routinely the theme of mainstream media coverage of pedestrian crashes. As we reported last week, the city is an increasingly dangerous place for pedestrians.

We should also tell you an unidentified woman was struck yesterday afternoon by a F-line streetcar at 5th and Market Streets, the second pedestrian crash in one day involving Muni. We can’t get much out of SFPD just yet but we’re working on it. If you can help us shed some light on these crashes, please shoot us an email: tips@sf.streetsblog.org.