Blog Topic
MUNI Accidents
Union City makes its streets unsafe
Posted by: Spencer Pahlke
April 15, 2008
As reported several places, first motorists.org, then leftlanenews.com, then sfist.com, then KQED, and now here, Union City decided to shorten its yellow light timing cycles below the legal limit. The result? In Union City, yellow lights ran shorter than other places. Why would Union City do this? If the yellow lights run for a shorter period of time, that means that the red light comes sooner--the end result being that more people who thought they were still in the yellow were actually in the red. Throw into the mix Union City's red-light cameras, and boom: instant revenue for the city when people are caught running red lights.
Of course, this underhanded way of scrounging up a little more revenue for the city is terrible policy. If yellow lights are made shorter, that buffer period between when cars can drive (green) and when they can't (duh, red), is shorter, meaning there is less time for cars to clear the intersection in one direction before they start coming in the other. This dangerous combination unnecessarily increases the risk of vehicle accidents and pedestrian accidents. And for what? A few extra dollars from red-light cameras? Bad idea.
If a person were injured because of these dangerous lights, there would likely be what is called a dangerous condition of public property: the municipality has created a condition that subjects its residents to unnecessary danger. In this case, sadly, there is a much stronger argument available against a city like Union City, which is intentionally, for its own financial benefit, putting its citizens at greater risk of injury.
At Walkup, we try all kinds of municipal liability cases, ranging from dangerous conditions of public property, to MUNI accidents, to medical malpractice of publicly employed doctors.
MUNI strikes 18th and 19th people in 2008
Posted by: Spencer Pahlke
April 04, 2008
Sadly, these things seem to come in waves. Back on January 16, two people were struck by MUNI vehicles. One of them, Mark Callaghan, was drug by an N-Judah train for two blocks before the driver stopped the vehicle. Sadly, this horrific incident proved fatal. Lawyers at Walkup are now handling this case for Mr. Callaghan's heirs.
The most recent wave of collisions took place in the last week or so. On March 26 th , as reported in the Examiner, an F-Market train struck and injured a 55-year-old woman in front of the Ferry Building. In other recent MUNI accident cases from this location, our attorneys have discovered frightening timing problems with the pedestrian lights that created serious risks of injury.
The Examiner noted that, back in November of last year, MUNI invested in a new batch of brakes for part of its fleet. While brakes may not have played a role in this accident, our lawyers have discovered that the City oftentimes defends itself against the people it injures by claiming that the brakes actually caused the accident. As Rich Schoenberger, one of our attorneys, explains in the following video clip, the City's argument just doesn't makes sense.
The most recent MUNI accident took place just yesterday. As the Examiner reported, the collision took place at the intersection of Geary and Fillmore, where a 38-Geary bus struck an unidentified man. The scene was gruesome: "blood-soaked asphalt and tattered clothes marked the scene of a harrowing collision...." Undoubtedly, this poor man's injuries are life threatening.
The Examiner piece looked at the latest collision as part of the larger record of MUNI pedestrian collisions. According to its count, this unfortunate man was the 19 th person struck by a MUNI vehicle this year. Last year, the total number of collisions was 62, meaning that MUNI is on track to have something on the order of 80 pedestrian-related collisions in 2008. That figure is all the more troubling in light of the trend in recent years: pedestrian-related injuries have risen every years since 2005. In 2005, there were 34; in 2006, there were 50; in 2007, there were 62.
