Truck Driver Kills Scooter Rider on Market Street
A truck driver ran over and killed a scooterist on Market Street near the Powell subway station Friday morning. More from an ABC News report on the incident, which happened before 8:20 a.m.:
A witness who was also on a scooter told ABC7 Eyewitness News he saw the woman’s tire get caught in one of the train tracks on Market Street and was run over by a box truck.
Police say it was a commercial vehicle that was involved in the collision and police have located the driver.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition issued the following statement:
Our hearts are heavy and our thoughts are with her family, friends, and community as they navigate this sudden grief.
People on bikes, scooters, and on foot are our most vulnerable road users and deserve safe roadways to ride and walk on. No one should lose their life trying to navigate our streets.
SFBike said they’ll be saying more soon.
From Streetsblog’s view, it’s impossible to ignore the policy elephant in the room.
Mark Heryer was killed in 2015 on Market, about a half-mile from Friday’s crash. His wheels fell into the gap between the rails and the asphalt, he crashed, and a bus driver ran him over. Yes, he was on a bike and it was a bus, not a truck, that killed him. But it was almost the same scenario. It was just a matter of time before this happened again; the protected bike lanes that were part of the Better Market Street plan were cancelled in 2020. They would have made this type of crash all-but impossible. As Streetsblog wrote three years ago, it’s simply not credible that the city could spend $600 million on Market Street changes, which are underway now, but could not find a way to build protected bike lanes.
This death, as with most on our streets, was a direct result of choices by city officials that don’t make safety the priority.
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