Recently, SF District Attorney George Gascón stated that the reason so few drivers are prosecuted in pedestrian collisions is that pedestrians are at fault “in the majority of cases”.
This is simply not true and it reflects the pro-auto attitude in a city with a cycling population that has increased 71% in the last 5 years. This tendency to favor automobiles is illustrated in the DA’s office history of persecuting only those fatalities and injuries which involve a DUI or a hit-and-run. Drivers, even those who are deemed at fault, often avoid any criminal prosecution. DA Gascón has broken this tradition by prosecuting three drivers and a cyclist with lethal negligence, a misdeamanor, in pedestrian fatalies. His recent statement, however, shows a dismissive attitude towards the safety and security of pedestrians and cyclists in San Francisco.
WalkSF is an organization fighting for pedestrian safety in San Francisco. Join them in their campaign to bring justice to pedestrians killed by negligent drivers. Email them at info@walksf.org and they will forward your email onto the DA’s office to let them know that the pedestrians-at-fault stance is not an acceptable attitude.
As WalkSF argues “the District Attorney and our police should be keeping us safe on the street and making it clear that injuring people has consequences. Instead, they’re blaming the victim.”
Sources: SfStreetsblog1 and SfStreetsblog2