Accident or assault?

SF Streetsblog keeps us informed about the ongoing slaughter on city streets, as drivers---the bastards!---of those darn motor vehicles routinely injure unsuspecting city pedestrians: Driver Hits Pedestrian Just Outside Golden Gate Park. 

And the driver hit that pedestrian---did he get out and hit him with a tire iron?---on a street near Golden Gate Park! No safe place for pedestrians in San Francisco!

The location tagged in Today's Headlines by SF Streetsblog is pictured above in the SF Chronicle story below:

Less than a week after a fatal crash that killed a family of four at a bus stop in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood, authorities were called to the scene of another collision across from Golden Gate Park that sent one man to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

On Saturday at approximately 4:50 p.m., police and firefighters arrived at the intersection of Fulton Street and Park Presidio Boulevard to find a “yield to pedestrians” sign toppled over and a man on the ground near the bus shelter, which services the 5 Fulton route. 

The man, who had reportedly been struck by an oncoming vehicle, was transported to the hospital, and the driver was “cited on scene for multiple moving violations,” SFPD public information officer Robert Rueca told SFGATE in an email.

It’s not clear if the pedestrian has been released from the hospital, and the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

The collision was less than a mile from Fulton Street and Arguello Boulevard, where a 72-year-old man was struck and killed by a car in February — the first pedestrian death in the city this year, according to Walk SF, an organization that advocates for pedestrian safety in San Francisco.

Fulton Street is part of the “high-injury network” identified by Vision Zero SF, an initiative implemented by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to eliminate traffic deaths and injuries in the city, meaning it is among the 12% of streets where 68% of crashes occur. 

Fulton Street from Arguello to 2nd Avenue and Fulton Street from 42nd Avenue to 43rd Avenue are two of the corridors in consideration for 33 speed cameras that are set to be installed by SFMTA by 2025; the agency cited “unsafe speed” as “one of the most common primary collision factors in crashes that result in injuries.”

Anyone with more information on Saturday’s crash is encouraged to call SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411.

A picture of the mishap above shows that obviousy the "driver" was at fault and evidently lost control of the car, though "the cause of the crash is still under investigation" in cop-speak. 

The "cause" may have been a drunk driver, or maybe the driver was distracted during a cellphone conversation. Whatever.

My point: the Chronicle story could have been written by the anti-car Streetsblog, since it shuns the word "accident" in favor of "crash" and "collision." It's clear that this is accurately called an "accident," since it's unlikely the driver deliberately targeted that pedestrian.

Seems likely too that man was not strictly speaking a "pedestrian" but was just waiting for the bus. The poor bastard was trying to do the right thing by riding public transportation and was still mowed down by that driver!

Am I indulging in semantic quibbles here? Maybe, but this is a minor but annoying example of how language has been contaminated here in Progressive Land. 

Okay, slow news day at Streetsblog and the Chronicle---and at District 5 Diary! If it bleeds maybe it doesn't lead, but it's legitimate fodder for all three news/opinion sources.

I can also cite in my defense links in the Chronicle's story to Vision Zero and Walk SF since I've been critical of both that "vision" and that organization in the past.