Pedestrian worker killed on Mission St., Tuesday morning
The Chronicle reports on another pedestrian death in San Francisco:
(09-29) 22:47 PDT San Francisco — A San Francisco man was arrested on suspicion of felony manslaughter after he either fell asleep or passed out Monday and drove his speeding Jaguar convertible onto a Mission District sidewalk, where it struck and killed a cafe worker, police said.
Jason Yantas, who turns 36 today, was arrested and booked into jail after he was released from San Francisco General Hospital, where he was treated for “substantial” injuries to his face and skull, police Inspector Matt Krimsky said.
…
The 1992 Jaguar XJS was headed north on Mission Street at 8:10 a.m. when it veered right just before 21st Street and jumped the curb, mowed down four parking meters and struck Gaspar Caballero, 27, of San Francisco, authorities said. The car came to rest against a tree. Caballero was declared dead a short time later at San Francisco General Hospital.
A Google Maps Street View of that section of Mission St. is here. You can see that usually the sidewalk is protected by a line of parked cars, but I guess there were no cars there at 8:10 a.m.
Inspector Matt Krimsky, in the video, said this is the 10th pedestrian death in the city this year. There have been 3 bicyclist deaths.
Krimsky also notes that at a different time of the morning, the casualty count could have been much higher - ‘a mass casualty incident’ - which is 12 or more people. This statement seems accurate — Mission Street can be so crowded that you run into ‘human traffic jams’ - just people out walking, window shopping, stopping at the local taqueria, browsing the produce at one of the markets, etc.
Mission has always seemed like a very dangerous street to me. I generally don’t ride on it - I’ll head over to Valencia, which runs parallel, and has a bike lane in both directions. Mission Street is such a vibrant place, but there are speeding cars and trucks and buses, and the traffic lights can be very short, and there are lots of pedestrians flowing to and from the BART stations at 16th and 24th.
This incident could have been criminal negligence at work, but can we do things to truly give priority to pedestrians, ideally while keeping the buses running efficiently, or even more efficiently? There has been talk of giving pedestrians and bicyclists and buses more freedom to move in safety around Market Street - could we do the same for Mission Street? What about lowering the speed limit through this very crowded corridor?
[Thanks for the heads up, Stu.]
Leave comment (0)[p.s. The Forums are open for participation.]
