The San Francisco Streets blog recently blasted the SFPD for failing to fully investigate the death of 24-year-old Amelie Le Moullac The young woman was killed two weeks ago when a truck driver made a right-turn into the biker on Folsom and Sixth early that morning.
The San Francisco Police Department received a wave of criticism from the city’s active biking community after a SF Bicycle Coalition Program Manager found video footage of the crash. Manager Marc Caswell says that there were two cameras pointing at the intersection and one of them captured the cyclist being run over in the bike lane.
“Our own staff, who were obviously not trained in police enforcement, took 10 minutes walking around and found footage that may be used as evidence down the road,” SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum told the SF Streets Blog. “We really wonder whether police are discounting cases in which people biking and walking are hit and killed based on some bias among officers.”
SF Streets reports that the cyclist was the third one killed by a truck this year and that none of the truck drivers have been charged for their involvement.
At least one San Francisco Chronicle reporter has noted that the SFPD appears “tone deaf” on the issue of cycling safety and the attorney of the victim’s family says that the police have stonewalled his efforts to help.
Although it is unclear whether this incident is a incident of “blame the victim” bias like SF Streets columnist Aaron Bialick claims, it does appear that pressure from our cycling community is bringing more attention to issues of bicycle safety and police investigations of cycling crashes.
