A 51-year-old man is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries after he collided his bike into an SUV whose driver was pulling into a mid-block garage, on Laguna Street near Broadway. SFPD reported that the man was headed in the downhill, northbound direction on Laguna, "and failed to stop at a stop sign" before crashing into the right side of the SUV.
In an email, SFPD spokesperson Albie Esparza didn't say how close the driveway was to the Broadway intersection, but said the man's treatment of the stop sign contributed to his "high rate of speed":
The stop sign is a factor in the collision. There are independent witnesses who spoke with police at the scene who stated the bicyclist was traveling n/b on Laguna at a high rate of speed downhill and ran the stop sign. Bicyclists, motorists nor pedestrians are immune from laws enacted in this state. They are enacted for public safety reasons. The SUV did not crash into the bicyclist. It was pulling into the garage when the bicyclist collided into the right side of the SUV or passenger side.
While a driver pulling into a driveway bears responsibility for making sure that the coast is clear before turning across oncoming traffic, someone bicycling or driving straight through should also be prepared to stop in time to avoid such a crash. In this case, given Laguna's steep downhill slope and the limited view over the hill crest, it's easy to imagine that the man might not have been as prepared to stop as he should have been.
"Certainly, regardless of the circumstances, we do hope the bicyclist makes a quick recovery," Esparza added. "It's never good when someone is injured."
