Note: GJEL Accident Attorneys regularly sponsors coverage on Streetsblog San Francisco and Streetsblog California. Unless noted in the story, GJEL Accident Attorneys is not consulted for the content or editorial direction of the sponsored content.
“We understand accidents happen but this is an opportunity to make the right choice and turn themselves in,” said Johnna Watson, a spokeswoman for the Oakland police department, as quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Watson was referring to a tragic car crash that occurred on January 2 near the Fruitvale BART station. A 14-year-old boy riding his bicycle was hit by a motorist, in the middle of a sunny, dry day.
That's what the Oakland police call an "accident?" How does one 'accidentally' hit and then leave a boy, his bones smashed, writhing in pain on the asphalt?
Let's give officer Watson the benefit of the doubt; maybe she hoped to coax the perpetrators into turning themselves in by soft-pedaling the consequences.
But just as likely, it speaks to the prevailing attitude that "accidents happen" and are inevitable. Leah Shahum, Founder and Executive Director of the Vision Zero Network, said this is part of a paradigm in which the priority is always about moving cars, rather than keeping people safe. "Whether people want to admit it or not, we've been doing that--sometimes unconsciously in how we design our streets and even how public officials and the police talk about it in the media," she told Streetsblog in a phone interview. "We've got to see leadership from those in the public sphere, acknowledging that these incidents are preventable."
SFMTA has already watered down the Townsend safety project, with an unprotected bike lane in the westbound direction...already blocked by a double-parked car in this photo. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick
So why not a phased signal? Or a protected intersection? Why a compromise that again throws cyclists back out into heavy car traffic, inviting more conflicts? Isn't the objection really about inconveniencing those "220 vehicles per hour?" Meanwhile, advocates are put in the weird position of having to be thankful for getting any safety project at all.
It's in this climate that SFMTA's Vision Zero page still carries the message:
Calendar Year 2018 Target: Zero traffic fatalities by 2024 Status: NOT MEETING TARGET
"It really is about them shifting their own mindsets," said Shahum, "...about how they prioritize budgets and how they do and design changes, even when there is push-back and opposition."
As to the hit-and-run driver in Fruitvale, an arrest was made last week. He should have stopped and followed the example of the motorist in San Jose and said: "I didn't see him." Never mind that the boy is still in critical condition; accidents just happen.