As San Francisco personal injury lawyers, who continue to represent victims of pedestrian accidents, we are extremely concerned to read a recently released report that San Francisco's streets are among the most dangerous in the nation for pedestrians. In fact, according to a news report in the Sacramento Bee, San Francisco and the Bay Area region are being ranked number two, right behind New York City, in pedestrian fatalities among the country's 52 largest metropolitan areas. This report was released by Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership.

The study ranks the San Francisco Bay Area at number 40 in its overall pedestrian danger index, which is the area's total number of pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents divided by the percentage of people who walk to work every day. About 3.9 percent of San Franciscans walk to work every day. The region also had 1.6 pedestrian deaths per 100.000 people last year. The group found that the rate of pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people in the city of San Francisco is 2.60 percent – which is 70 percent higher than the national average.

San Francisco Pedestrian Accident Statistics

According to California Highway Patrol's 2007 Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), there were 29 fatalities and 775 injuries involving pedestrian accidents in San Francisco. Also, in 2007, traffic accidents claimed 51 lives and injured 3,632 injuries in San Francisco. These numbers show that more than half of all traffic accident fatalities in the city of San Francisco in 2007, involved pedestrian accidents.

Why are pedestrian accident fatalities so high in San Francisco? Safety advocates say that most pedestrian deaths occur because the streets are too dangerous and lack necessary safety features such as sidewalks, crosswalks and pedestrian signals. Most of this comes down to lack of funding, county officials say. According to the report, some of the most dangerous roadways in San Francisco are roads such as Van Ness Avenue and McAllister and Irving Streets. Another problem street is 19th Avenue, where more than a dozen pedestrian deaths and thousands of pedestrian accident related injuries have taken place over the last few years.

Government Liability Cases

If you have been injured in a pedestrian accident as a result of a dangerous roadway, please contact an experienced San Francisco car accident attorney who will persevere to protect your rights. In such cases, the city or governmental agency responsible for maintaining that roadway could be held liable. It is in victim's best interest to act promptly in these cases because California Government Code requires claims against governmental entities to be filed within 180 days of the accident or injury.