A woman was taken to the hospital Saturday afternoon with non-life threatening injuries after an electric unicycle struck her while she was crossing the Great Highway around 4:21 p.m., according to the San Francisco Police Department.
The woman was crossing the closed section of the Great Highway at the intersection of Lawton Street when the accident occurred. Bystanders reported that she was pushing a stroller with a young child, accompanied by a small black dog and the child’s grandmother. Only the mother was injured.
The man driving the unicycle alleged that as the woman crossed, the dog’s retractable leash blocked his path while he was traveling, according to Sylvia Martin, who arrived on the scene soon after the accident and spoke with the cyclist. Martin said that he estimated he was traveling about 25 mph at the time of the crash.
Martin, a retired physician, checked on the woman, who appeared to be in “a great deal of pain.” The unicyclist also reportedly sustained injuries, but declined medical care.
SFPD arrived at around 4:35 p.m. to interview the man and document the scene, but did not take the unicyclist into custody.
Lt. Mariano Elias of the SFFD said that while crashes on the Great Highway are not common, this was not the first. “You have an array of vehicles on the road with pedestrians, and there is no real right of way. People just decide to do what they want to do,” said Lt. Elias.
After finishing his interview with SFPD, the man got back on his unicycle, according to Martin. A bystander tried to chase him down, shouting that he should not be on the unicycle, but he only turned briefly to shout back. Then he sped away, heading south down the Great Highway.
