The SFMTA has agreed to a $3.25 million settlement involving a Muni bus colliding with and killing a bicyclist.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has agreed to a $3.25 million settlement involving a Muni bus colliding with and killing a bicyclist near 11th and Bryant streets in 2013.
On Tuesday, the transit agency’s Board of Directors approved the settlement at its regular meeting during the closed session.
Cheng Jin Lai, 78, was on his bicycle when a 27-Bryant bus hit Lai and crushed him to death with its back right tire on Oct. 18, 2013.
Lai was on his way to drop off his family’s recycling when a Muni bus allegedly cut him off, according to attorney Mark Fong with Minami Tamaki LLP, who represents Lai’s wife Guang Mei Qui in the lawsuit filed in July 2014.
Fong said in a statement to SFBay that Lai was the patriarch of the family of seven children who led his family on foot from Vietnam to China during the war. Fong said Lai was a lifelong cyclist.
In addition, reports surfaced at the time from SF Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi that the bus was missing a “S-1 Gard” bumper mounted in front and back of Muni bus wheels to prevent people from getting rolled over. This prompted the SFMTA to inspect all of its buses.
The missing bumper was also cited in the lawsuit, claiming the transit agency negligently put a Muni bus on the streets that was not safe despite the transit agency’s policy that all buses have this gard on at all times and no bus should not operate without them.
The City’s Department of Public Works was also included as part of the lawsuit, which alleged the department was at fault for the dangerous intersection at 11th Street near Bryant and Division streets:
“Defendants negligently failed to inspect, maintain, control and/or repair the subject roadway, lanes and intersection for motorists, bicyclist, and pedestrians in this area, so a to create this dangerous condition which caused and contributed to the death of the Decedent.”
The intersection where Lai was hit and killed was part of the first 30 Vision Zero projects completed in 24 months since The City adopted the goal of having zero traffic deaths by 2024. Improvements made in the intersection included signal timing changes, additional bicycle guidance approaching the intersection and establishing a parking-protected bike lane.
Qui and the family sought damages for the wrongful death of Lai and funeral and burial expenses.
Fong said:
“Our hope is the settlement of $3.25 million to Mr. Lai’s family will help bring them comfort for the husband and father they lost.”
Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.
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If City Hall and the SFMTA are trying to reduce deaths on the road they should start with their own drivers. This year alone MUNI drivers have hit, run over, crushed, pummeled, and pulverized everyone from little old ladies to chickens who were trying to cross the road. The only thing I haven’t seen a MUNI driver do is to hit someone, then throw their bus in reverse to run them over again to finish the job.
In 2014 SFMTA claimed that the streets were too fast and they needed to be “calmed” with road diets and “Vision Zero”. This year the MTA is saying that their newly “calmed” streets are too slow and they need to spend
billions more to on BRT’s and “transit only” lanes to speed up MUNI. So what is it MTA? Are the streets too slow or too fast? How much more Taxpayer money do you need to draw a conclusion?
City Leaders can’t “Vision Zero” their own fleet of public transit vehicles so how are they going to “Vision Zero” the rest us? Since SFMTA’s Vision Zero was forced upon the citizens of San Francisco the number of MUNI (at fault)
traffic accidents and deaths have remained virtually unchanged. SFMTA Director Ed. Reiskin and the rest of the incompetent SFMTA Board should rename “Vision Zero” to “Do as we say, not as we do.”
It should be pretty obvious that a street can be too fast causing danger to all street users yet also be a good place to create transit-only lanes to keep our public transportation moving.