Bicycle Accident: Need for Better Traffic Engineering
9 April 2007 | Bicycle Accidents, Late Afternoon, Not Severe, SUV / Truck / Van, 36-45, Male | No Comments
Street: 3rd
Cross Street: King
City: San Francisco
State: California
Date: 2005-02-01
Time: late afternoon
Severity: not severe
Driver’s Vehicle: truck
Driver’s Age: 45
Driver’s Gender: Male
Description: I was on the rec trail heading to the Caltrain station. There is no bike lane starting mid-block of the SBC park heading towards the train, so sometimes I ride the other side as there is also a lot of construction in this area making it generally unsafe to ride on the proper side of the road. (They have since marked the road for bikes which has helped, but this was before it was marked for us.) Tow truck driver did not stop behind the crosswalk line and instead entered the cross walk against a red light attempting to make a right turn onto the embarcadero. I ended up running into the back end of his truck, though I almost managed to miss him. I had to replace front tire of my bike and had a nice little gash on my chin (no stitches required or anything). I frequently see this happen at this intersection where drivers don’t even look to see if anyone is coming in the crosswalk (pedestrian or otherwise) because they are too interested in looking at traffic for a gap to make their right turn. A friend of mine was hit just at the access road to SBC on the Embarcadero I think it was in November 2005 (the other side of the ball park from where I was hit) He was
on his bike heading into downtown (away from the train station) and he ended up with broken hand and several stitches on his face and arm. That driver hit him from behind and then didn’t stop.
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