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 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 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.
There’s a basic rule of right of way that pedestrians have right of way over any powered vehicle, absent some clear situation that gives vehicles right of way (e.g. you cannot just step out into a busy street and expect vehicles to slam on their brakes). As such, it seems that the electric unicycle rider failed to yield to a pedestrian when he should have, and the injured pedestrian is very likely to have an open-and-shut case against the rider to claim damages for their injuries. Assuming the rider has assets or insurance, of course. Electric unicycles aren’t that cheap, so there’s a good chance the rider has assets to pay damages in a case.
I live 2 blocks away and check the surf everyday so I cross the Great Hwy everyday. I’ve seen this guy (or a few of them) just ripping up and down the paths wayyyy too fast. Sometimes they act dare-devilish by pivoting the last second before passing pedestrians. Often they have headphones on with music so loud you can actually hear it. Often they have sneering looks on thier faces as if pissed off by all the pedestrians blocking the thouroughfare. They are completely different than most of the serious Cyclists who, while perhaps going a bit too fast, allways watch ahead for pedestrians and usually wave or give a verbal “right side!, left!” as they pass. Make no mistake this is increasingly becoming an issue as more and more people discover the closed Great Hwy. I can’t imagine what can be done about this. Perhaps big signs at the crosswalks for pedestrians “WATCH OUT FOR SELFISH SPEEDING IDIOTS”.
You sure the right of way laws apply when it’s NOT a street? The police lieutenant is quoted as saying there is no “real right of way“; I assume he knows. There have been plenty of incidents and near-misses out there on crowded days, involving pedal bikes, e-bikes, runners, walkers, strollers, lolly-gaggers, etc. It’s kind of a design flaw.
@SF – Parks have streets, and we have a city Park Code, which alludes to other laws covering pedestrians. Whether this motorized one-wheel gadget qualifies as a “vehicle” is an interesting question.
§ 6.01 (b) All persons operating vehicles must drive or propel them in a careful manner, at a lawful rate of speed, and in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Recreation and Park Commission, San Francisco Traffic Code and California Vehicle Code;
It’s a motorcycle with one wheel. It’s capable of doing 60mph. It belongs no where near a pedestrian path. This lady is very lucky to be alive. Rider should be in jail at very least estate sued for medical bills.
Not a park. It specifically allows vehicles on the road by charter.
@HmNo – I have no idea what you’re trying to claim. It is in fact a park, that’s also in the Park Code (because voters passed Prop K) and the Park Code stipulates that this street restricts (not “allows”) the use of private motor vehicles.
Contrarian point: If the unicycle rider’s side of the story is true, it’s the dog owner’s fault for letting the dog dart out into the Great Highway.
And if he hit the baby carriage, would that be her fault too?
Mom gets an additional charge: Even without hitting the stroller, letting the dog loose with the leash blocking the unicyclist’s path could be considered child endangerment.
He was going 25 mph in a mixed use park area where pedestrians are common, injured somebody as a result, and they didn’t charge him with anything? SMH.
This is a gross negligence of duty by SFPD. 25 miles an hour is way too fast to ride any vehicle in an area shared with pedestrians. The unicycle rider should have been arrested for vehicular assault.
Guy is going 25 miles an hour on a ONE-WHEEL electric scooter? He’s got more money than brains to be going that fast.
I witnessed this crash first hand. The guy on the unicycle Blew right past me on my bicycle. I was doing 20mph according to Strava. He had to be doing twice that if not more. He was leaning forward as they were crossing the intersection. He had plenty of time to Brake or ditch it in the dune. He got low, wobbled , and then collided with the lady. The impact was so hard if it were an elderly person or the child in the stroller they would be dead. The cops didn’t seem to care that this guy was basically riding a motorcycle on a closed park. They need to educate themselves. One wheels are not toys they are capable of speed of up to 60mph. They belong no where near pedestrians or bicycle path. I’ve seen cyclist collide with pedestrian on the trail and while it’s bad everyone walks away. This lady had serious broken bones. That guy should be in jail for reckless endangerment.
Interesting that when something negative happens all of a sudden its the Great Highway again instead of you ALWAYS referring to it as Sunset Dunes Park. Are you sure this has nothing to do with trying to influence the upcoming balance measure? i.e. Sunset Dunes Park good…. Great Highway bad
Agree with AB. I was just saying the same thing. I think it is intentional as wehn you mine data, this would get attributed to the GH. Request that this be edited. Global edit: change “Great Highway” to “Sunset Dunes Park”. Also it’s not “vehicles” as in cars, it’s bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, skateboards, and now e-unicycles.
Friendly reminder to the ML staff that cars cause about 3,000 hospitalizations in the city every year, and that number has been basically steady for a decade.
That’s not “new” so it isn’t “news”, but it is important context that should be included in any article like this one.
Thank you for the data, but I have no intuition when reading numbers that are not normalized i.e. number of hospitalizations = 3000/number of cars in SF. I have absolutely no idea of the number of hospitalizations caused by bikes/number of bikes in SF.
You may be right, but don’t you think comparing the ratios is crucial?
As with robot cars, the number of e-unis is a miniscule fraction of the total number of cars in the city. When they are involved in an incident, it is statistically significant due to their relative small numbers, and therefore it is noteworthy.
“I hit the lady cuz the leash was in my way.” AYKM?
“Cyclist tries hiding from out of control cyclist responsibility again, news at 11”
If a reporting is reporting on a bad thing that happened, they aren’t obligated to add “OH BUT WHAT ABOUT (OTHER BAD THING)”.
It’s e-anarchy down there, it was only a matter of time until somebody got run over like that. MLK from the panhandle to DeYoung has similar issues BTW.
The guy on the eUnicycle needs to apologize to the woman. Those electic uni-cycles are capable or 50 mph or more. We have been wrestling with this problem on trails in Marin county for years. The answer was to bring all stakeholders to the table, come up with rational solutions with the land management agencies and draft practical and sensible rules and solutions. E mountain bikes have been embraced, but only class 1 pedal assist. max speed 20 mph. We did not allow trottle powered class 2 and 3 bikes. I’m a class 1 eMountain biker and have been advocating for 22 years for equal access on the mountains. It became clear that the best approach was inclusion and rules that work for everybody. But in this case, you can’t mix a vehicle that’s capable of 50 mph speeds on the park roadway. That’s a disaster. However, you all should convene with Rec and Parks and SFPD to come up with a solution that works best for everybody. Just my $.02.
This sounds like an accident waiting to happen. It is also just the kind of scenario that will be repeated as long as there are NO RULES to road other than car removal. One thing care do is create an obvious distinction between them and everyone else. Most people know to avoid them. Not so easy to stay away from every toy that gets “played” on this unregulated stretch of property where “anything goes.”
Given the fact that there are four lanes, two each on either side of a separated roadway, and there are two pathways on each side of the road left over from the original configuration that run along side the four lanes of paved streets, one would think that the pedestrians could be separated easily from the toys.
Why is no pedestrian safe lane under the current “non-regulated” setup if safety is the number one reason for car removal?
This was an accident on the Sunset Dunes. Motorized vehicles (battery or carbon powered: same origin of the power) need to be banned!
It would be great if we could just remove the asphalt and make it a park.
And remove all the banners, the ads, the octopus, the fake “art”…..
If it really was a park, there would be on site Park and Rec staff to supervise and enforce rules about use of the park. Staffing this was not a priority in the rush to make it a ‘park’. It has turned into an ungovernable and unsupervised space that is often dangerous to walkers and no one still accepts responsibility for oversight. It seems even the police want nothing to do with an incident like the one described because its in a space so vaguely defined, which no matter how you look at it was the direct result of no one taking responsibility for supervising and actually managing this so-called ‘Park’ . The mayor never mentions it, nor does anyone else at City Hall. Does it even have a permanent budget like any other City Park?
Good thing we closed it off to cars so it’s safe for pedestrians
It generally is. E vehicles need to be seriously regulated and banned from all pedestrian paths. They are more than capable of keeping up with car traffic and are designed to with suspension to be ridden in the street. They belong no where near pedestrian path. I’m sure motorcycle riders would love to be away from cars too but they are too fast and heavy for a pedestrian path. No different than e vehicles. Cops need to educate themselves. This was a clear case of manslaughter. If he’s braking and hits her at 20mph how fast was he going? I know because I witnessed it first hand. I was going 20 on my bicycle and he flew past doing at least 40 if not 60.
Public enemy number two (bicyclists’) meets public enemy number 3 (dog owners).
Can’t we all come together in our dislike of the electric mono-wheels?
The public deserves a space, thoughtfully designed safety zone —not a high-speed, unregulated corridor where pedestrians are left at risk. Shame
Meanwhile, pro-park folks sit on their hands (not my problem) 👀 injuries to the public will continue.
Space:Golden Gate Park
Yep, that’s the standard Mission socialist, shutting down a road that working people need to ride a unicycle he doesn’t know how to ride.
@Congrats – Riiiiiiight, because if there’s anyone anti-worker it’s a socialist. Top-notch commentary.
Independent traffic study already showed closing Great highway just to become a self proclaimed PARK has greatly decreased safety despite immature anti car clowns .While drivers being taken care of. It already been told the closure,it enabled bikers who already been blowing through stop signs or in ughwy. hitting people crossing whether this is logged or not ever since closure and adding obstacles anonmilies into park. That great highway need opened up to restore Safety for all.
@D4 resident – What “independent traffic study” shows that? The city’s own open data doesn’t support this conclusion, and the _Chronicle_ and _Standard_’s analysis of private GPS data don’t support this conclusion. What “study” are you referring to?
There’s another one now.
This is fault of lucas and anti car political groups who
Decreased safety for beach goes
Because pedestrians are safer with cars around than e-vehicles? That’s silly.
Police need to educate themselves. E vehicles with no pedals belong no where near a pedestrian path. This lady basically got hit by a motorcycle with one wheel. The crazy thing about this is if the one wheel had a gas engine and made noise the rider who collided with pedestrian would have been cited or taken into custody for riding it on a pedestrian path and colliding with someone causing serious injury. I witnessed this first hand and what I saw was manslaughter. That man hit her at 20mph because he was breaking from 50 or 60mph on a pedestrian path.
Factual actually. No one has been seriously hurt at Great Highway in several years by vehicles except for the dementia patient who wandered onto the Highway outside of a crosswalk suddenly in low visibility conditions. Prop K was never about increasing safety and the opposite is true.
It’s true.
There have been less pedestrian collisions when the road was open to cars than there have been since the creation of Sunset Dunes.
This is police not understanding electric mobility vehicles are not toys and belong no where near cyclist or pedestrians. They need to educate themselves because people are dying this could’ve easily been fatal. I witnessed it first hand.