Streetsblog San Francisco

One of these things is not like the others: District Attorney George Gascón's new ad campaign would have San Franciscans believe that driving into a crosswalk full of pedestrians is no more dangerous than crossing against a signal on foot or bike.

For a district attorney who wants to save lives on the streets, using data to target the most dangerous traffic behaviors should be a no-brainer.

But the new traffic safety ad campaign announced today by San Francisco DA George Gascón seems to use little application of crash data collected by his own former police department. The three versions of the ad, which feature the tagline “What’s the Rush?,” list fines for respective traffic violations and plead, “Let’s all work together to make our streets safe.”

It’s encouraging that the DA is bringing attention to the need for safer streets: As a press release from his office noted, “Among California cities, San Francisco has historically had the highest per capita vehicle-pedestrian injury collision rate.” In 2011, 28 people were killed on San Francisco streets: 17 pedestrians, three bicyclists, and eight people in motor vehicles.

But not only do but the ads fail to target the most common causes of injuries and deaths on San Francisco streets — by seeming to equate plowing through pedestrians in a crosswalk with crossing against a light on bike or foot, they downplay the disproportionately greater risk inherent in driving a motor vehicle.

Rather than emphasize fines, a more effective approach for the campaign might be to list the number of people injured or killed by such violations each year. Fortunately, that data is summarized in the SF Municipal Transportation Agency’s 2010-2011 Traffic Collision Report [PDF], the most recent one available.

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How dangerous is it to cross the street outside your door? A new interactive, corner-by-corner map created by the SF Department of Public Health shows the location of all pedestrian injuries and deaths from 2005 to 2010, highlighting the corridors that see the bulk of the city’s crashes.

By providing better access to data, SFDPH hopes the map will help city agencies understand where to target physical street safety improvements and traffic enforcement to reduce injuries, said Rajiv Bhatia, SFDPH’s director of occupational and environmental health.

“The interactive site simply allows users to get the data they need directly,” said Bhatia. “We’ve also made the underlying data available to anyone in the public sphere who wants to do further analysis or use the data for another application. User-friendly government data should help to get people talking about important problems like pedestrian safety and hopefully will contribute to more informed solutions.”

The map is based on data from the California Highway Patrol’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Reporting System (SWITRS). It compiles information on each pedestrian injury over the five-year period, including markers that differentiate between crashes in which the victim suffered minor injuries, severe injuries, or was killed.

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A "walking bus" on the way to Buena Vista Horace Mann Elementary in the Mission this morning. Photo courtesy of Walk SF

A continuous “walking bus” of school children spanned several sunny blocks of the Mission this morning as the kids made their way to Buena Vista Horace Mann School.

“Drivers just waited and smiled, and everybody had a great morning,” said Elizabeth Stampe, executive director of Walk San Francisco.

San Francisco broke records for Walk to School Day today, with an estimated 55 schools and 8,500 students taking part, many of them in walking buses, which provide kids a safe and healthy commute option. In fact, BVHM Principal Jennifer Steiner announced that the school would begin scheduling a weekly walking bus heading out from Parque Niños Unidos, where parents can drop their kids off five blocks away.

Walking in groups provides a presence on the street that not only makes students and parents more visible to drivers, but also sends the signal to slow down perhaps more effectively than any speed limit sign.

Advocates and city officials celebrated the SF Municipal Transportation Agency’s implementation of 181 15 MPH school zones. The project, which had just gotten underway by last year’s Walk to School Day, was the first of its scale in the state.

But while the city has set a strong example for others to follow, “We’re also looking for ways to tame speeds in San Francisco,” said Stampe. The danger of streets with high-speed car traffic is one of the main barriers discouraging parents from letting their kids walk to school, she said. “When kids have to cross a street with fast traffic, or cross where cars don’t yield like on Monterey Boulevard, that’s a real issue for parents.”

According to the Department of Public Health, 42 percent of students citywide live within a mile of their school, but only 25 percent walk, said Stampe. Those numbers do vary — for Buena Vista Horace Mann, located in the walkable Mission District, 23 percent of the students live within a mile, and 19 percent walk.

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A new arm hangs a "straight" traffic signal over Fell, and an additional left-turn arrow (the right-most one) replaced a former "straight" signal. Photos: Aaron Bialick

Last December, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency installed a camera to enforce the left turn signal at Fell Street and Masonic Avenue, which prohibits drivers from turning during a bicycle and pedestrian crossing phase. But drivers upset about receiving a ticket and fine of roughly $500 for violating the light have continued to complain that the red left-turn signal isn’t visible enough. Whether or not that’s the case has been an ongoing debate that has drawn 139 comments on our story over the year.

To help make the red left-turn signal more apparent, the SFMTA installed two new traffic signals at the spot last week. A new signal showing a “straight” green arrow now hangs over the middle of Fell, attached to a new pole and signal arm. A new left-turn arrow was also installed on the left corner of the intersection, replacing a former “straight” traffic signal.

While violations of the left-turn signal are still regular, they seem to have dropped this year. In 2011, six people were were reported hit by drivers while walking and biking at the intersection. The last known crash occurred on December 20, and it’s unknown if anyone has been hit since then.

The SFMTA installed the left-turn signal along with a bicycle traffic signal in late 2008 to protect pedestrians and bicyclists crossing Masonic along the Panhandle’s heavily-used path. Previously, left-turning drivers were expected to yield to people crossing the street, but it has remained one of the city’s hot spots for injuries to vulnerable street users. Drivers violated the signal routinely, and crashes remained high, even after the SFMTA installed a shield on the bicycle signal to block it from the view of drivers who might mistake it for a turn signal.

Bicycle and pedestrian advocates have for years pushed for improvements to Fell and Masonic — both dangerous, high-speed thoroughfares for cars. Coincidentally, the redesign plan for Masonic is up for approval at the SFMTA Board of Directors meeting tomorrow. However, the plan stops short of improving the Panhandle crossing, and construction is years off (funding hasn’t been secured yet).

Do you think the new signal configuration will finally put the issue to rest? For comparison, see a photo of the old one after the break.

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Photo: Sally Khim

Criminal charges may be brought against the taxi driver who killed pedestrian Edmund Cappalla on August 11 at Eddy and Larkin Streets, according to Denis O’Leary, head of the SFPD Traffic Company. SFPD investigators reportedly submitted the case to the District Attorney’s office last Wednesday.

While it’s not known which charges the DA could file, O’Leary said in an e-mail that the SFPD “will not charge the driver with the infractions of running a red light or failing to yield to a pedestrian as those are lesser included offenses of the charge of vehicular manslaughter and citing the driver for those infractions would compromise a future prosecution.”

A request for comment from the DA’s office was not returned as of press time.

“Walk SF and its members are very pleased to see the fast response from the police and certainly look forward to equally swift action from the District Attorney,” said Walk SF Executive Director Elizabeth Stampe in response to the SFPD statements. “It’s important to make clear that it’s not OK to run a red light and kill a person on San Francisco streets.”

O’Leary said investigators confirmed reports that the driver of the taxi van ran a red light while traveling east on Eddy, when he was hit by another driver traveling north on Larkin (through a green light), causing the taxi to spin and strike Cappalla in a crosswalk along Larkin.

“There were at least ten witnesses who remained at the scene. A video of part of the collision was found at a nearby surveillance camera and was seized as evidence,” O’Leary said. ”The van was impounded. There was no indication of intoxication on the part of the van’s driver.”

O’Leary also noted that officers from the Traffic Company and the local Northern Station “will increase their vigilance in protecting pedestrians in the neighborhood of Eddy and Larkin Streets.” O’Leary said he couldn’t provide the taxi driver’s name “as doing so could compromise the investigation and jeopardize the prosecution.”

Photos: Sally Khim

Police are still looking into whether charges could be filed against the taxi driver who allegedly ran a red light at Eddy and Larkin Streets Saturday, causing a car crash that killed pedestrian Edmund Capalla, the SF Examiner reports. The driver has reportedly yet to be arrested or cited.

“We have to see if he was negligent,” SFPD spokesperson Albie Esparza told the Examiner. “He may have had a medical emergency, I don’t know.” Esparza called the crash a “heartbreaking accident,” adding that it “could have been prevented if laws had been obeyed.”

Walk SF Executive Director Elizabeth Stampe said “the police should be telling us what actually happened, not speculating on excuses for the driver.”

“We know there was a medical emergency: Edmund Capalla was hit and killed while walking,” she said. “We expect solid information from the police about how this occurred. Walk SF and its members want to see swift action on this case from the police and, if appropriate, from the District Attorney’s office.”

Christina Siadat and Sally Khim were at a store on Larkin when they heard the crash. “We ran outside and saw the red car on the pole,” Siadat told Streetsblog. “We walked around the corner and there was the man lying face down with shattered glass.”

Siadat said a clerk at a corner store confirmed reports that the taxi driver ran a red light when the driver of the red car, who had a green light, hit the taxi, causing it to slam into Capalla, who was crossing the street. “The clerk said that the cab driver was sitting on the curb with his head in his hands,” she said.

The crash occurred just before 7 p.m., during daylight hours. Capalla, who died at San Francisco General Hospital, was the eleventh known pedestrian killed in the city this year.

The driver of the red car, who reportedly entered the intersection with a green light, hit the taxi before running into a pole. Siadat said she and Khim didn't notice the taxi at the time.

Eddy and Larkin during the two-way traffic conversion in April. Photo: geekstinkbreath/Flickr

Updated 6:57 p.m.

A man was killed on Saturday evening by a taxi driver who allegedly ran a red light at Eddy and Larkin Streets, the Bay City News reported as published by SF Appeal this morning. He is the eleventh known pedestrian killed this year in San Francisco.

According to the SF Chronicle, Edmund Capalla, 38, was crossing the street just before 7 p.m. when the driver ran a red light, was struck by another driver entering the intersection, and slammed into him. Cappalla was taken to San Francisco General Hospital where he died of his injuries. “Police are continuing their investigation and will pass the results on to the District Attorney’s office which will decide what charges, if any, will be filed against the cab driver,” according to the Chronicle.

Despite that stretch of Eddy being converted to a two-way street in April, which helped calm motor traffic, the Tenderloin continues to see some of the highest rates of pedestrian injuries in the city.

“If you look at the maps that we have of where the most injuries occur to people walking, the Tenderloin is a real hot spot,” said Walk SF Executive Director Elizabeth Stampe. “We need to see a renewed conviction from the city to making improvements that save lives.”

In February, a driver was caught on video running over a man in a crosswalk at Eddy and Leavenworth Streets, two blocks away. The driver was only cited after a show of outrage from pedestrian advocates, and will apparently not face charges since the victim didn’t die.

Assuming the preliminary reports regarding this latest crash are correct, more traffic calming measures and traffic enforcement are clearly needed to curb the amount of dangerous speeding and other violations committed by drivers in the neighborhood.

As information becomes available, we’ll follow up with more details on the crash and any charges that may stem from it.

No charges were filed in the death of Lourdes Richman, 71, in a crosswalk at Townsend and Second Streets. Photo: Greg Janess

Updated 8 p.m.

As Streetsblog has reported, when a sober automobile driver strikes and kills a pedestrian in San Francisco and stays at the scene, charges are rarely filed. While evidence suggests motorists’ failure to yield is responsible for a plurality of pedestrian injuries in the city, new information furnished by the SF District Attorney’s office shows that few drivers who kill face charges unless they are drunk or flee the scene.

According to the DA’s office, of the 17 pedestrian deaths in 2011, 10 were presented by SFPD to the DA for investigation. Of those 10, the DA filed charges in seven cases.

Here is the list of people charged provided by the DA’s office:

• Jose Jimenez, a drunk driver who fled after killing James Hudson on Masonic Avenue
• Wallace Loggins, a Muni driver who killed Emily Dunn in the Castro
• Updated: Juan Martinez, a driver who fled after killing Eddy Mendez on a traffic island at Potrero and Cesar Chavez
• Randolph Ang, a bicycle rider who killed Dionette Cherney on the Embarcadero
• Gregg Wilcox, a driver who killed William Cox at 14th and Noe Streets while wearing a cast
• Updated: Terry Chan, a driver who killed Helen Tam — more info not immediately available
• Updated: En Lin – currently in federal prison, but ”arrest warrant prepared” for killing Aurora Venida at Geary and Arguello

Of the cases we know about, the only drivers who were sober and stayed at the scene are En Lin, who killed Aurora Venida in a crosswalk at Geary Arguello Boulevards; Gregg Wilcox, who was wearing a cast on his leg while driving; and Wallace Loggins, a Muni driver. It’s also worth noting that the DA charged Wallace Richardson, a UCSF shuttle driver who killed Professor Kevin Mack, his passenger, when he crashed into a big rig when running a red light at Octavia Boulevard and Oak Street.

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