For most of my in-town travel, I take public transport or ride my bike. I am fortunate to live on a train line, but track work has meant that one must take a replacement bus for part of the downtown journey. On St. Patrick's Day, at the bus stop where one transfers from one mode of public transport to the next, an entire family save for a baby was struck and killed by a motorist. Given the date, I had thought that the driver was inebriated, but it would seem that age and prescription medication played a role in her driving into the opposite lane of traffic at high speeds before hitting a public library, spinning out of control, then careening into a bus shelter. At least twice a week, I am at that bus shelter as is my elderly neighbor and so many others who live in out in the Avenues (read: western San Francisco). Yesterday, a large group of us met at the crash site for a memorial. To say that it was a somber affair is an understatement.
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| Where the bus stop stood. |
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| West Portal branch library, the site of the memorial. |
There were news media outlets at the memorial, the district supervisor and someone I recognized from the city's transportation department, but not the mayor. I wish she would have made an appearance, to be honest. I stood next to someone who appeared to be a journalist (he was taking notes on a small pad of paper) and I asked him how he covers such a story. Looking clearly upset, he said that this was his beat, he regularly reports such incidents, and looks at how proper city infrastructure could have possibly aided in preventing such a tragedy. 'If there'd been a raised platform in the middle of the street, then maybe this would not have happened.' Shaking his head, he told me how his family used to live around the corner and that he used to take his nieces to the library here on a regular basis.
The very real idea that this could have been any of us, does not (yet) seem to be a motivating factor in making change, so that nothing like this could easily happen again.
Why do people have to get hurt (at the least) before any sensible solution is found
ReplyDeleteOne does wonder.
DeleteWe have had similar tragedies, one a few years ago when a driver who lost consciousness drove the school bus queue and a teenage girl died. Others too. Parents and relatives regularly mark the places with flowers. I often think how, as time goes by, I am among the very few who remember why the flowers are there.
ReplyDeleteAwful, awful stuff.
DeleteTragic, just tragic.
ReplyDeleteNo one was meant to speak at the event yet someone sans mic did say a few barely audible words. I caught a whiff of 'thoughts and prayers' and I believe we've had enough of that.
DeleteOnly constant attention and pressure on government will make a difference, spoken as one formerly a member of government, but without authority. As such I sat in meeting after meeting, taking minutes and realizing that problems brought by citizens dragged on for year after year for want of proper zoning, policing, etc within the authority of the government, but not attended to, meeting after meeting after meeting.
ReplyDeleteI hope some citizens take it upon themselves to put unceasing pressure on government to address and solve the problem.
I hope so, too. There is one person, a local parent and advocate for safe streets, who has interfaced with local govt numerous times around the issue of safe streets. At his urging, many of us have written letters of complaint urging for change. You are so right, the pressure must be relentless before any change is put into action.
DeleteI'm sure the city doesn't want to say it was an infrastructure problem as that would mean they have to find some money to fix it. This they will resist. You all have to make a big enough stink to get the city to do anything.
ReplyDeleteWe absolutely do. Letters have already been penned. More need to be.
DeleteThat is so awful. We are in the process of giving more precedence to pedestrians here, but car drivers seem to feel more entitled than ever before, even complaining about the new 20 MPH limits in towns. In most streets of my town, 20 would be dangerously fast, but people still drive along at 40.
ReplyDeleteIt is incredibly awful. The baby, critically injured, has also now died. That's an entire family gone. This driver was going in excess of 50mph, it was reported, in a residential zone where the speed limit is 30mph, I believe.
DeleteOh, how terrible. I'm at bus stops nearly every day with a carefree attitude but your story brings back memories of something similar happening here some years back. Completely random accidents but they do happen. Most of the worst pedestrian accidents in our news come from elderly drivers rather than the archetypal crazed car thief or suchlike.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shameful admission that grumbling can often be heard from me as a pedestrian when "inconvenient" obstacles like fences and barriers are placed around roadways etc, but typically they're a direct consequence of some tragedy occuring at the spot.
Yes, it was to be an outing at the zoo, I've read. The entire family is dead. We who live here would like to see this junction become closed to private cars. I have always disliked crossing anywhere near where this crash occurred.
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