Hurt boys’ attorney: City also to blame

Fixes to intersection long overdue, he says

After Julian Melendez and Peter Nguyen finished doing their math homework on the morning of Nov. 4, the two seventh-graders went to a nearby Safeway before heading off to San Francisco’s Marina Middle School.

But moments after they left the supermarket, an alleged drunken driver plowed into the two 12-year-olds as they crossed Bay Street in a crosswalk at 8:30 a.m., one block from the school. The two survived but were severely injured and face long recoveries.

On Wednesday, road crews were paving the stretch of Bay that crosses Buchanan Street where the boys were struck down, moving forward with a pedestrian-safety project that’s been in the works for two years.

An attorney for the boys’ families — who is mulling possible legal action — said the city should have already updated the stretch of Bay Street between Laguna and Fillmore streets that has long been a subject of frustration for

neighbors.

“I think the city has its priorities wrong and it shouldn’t take (an) accident for them to get them together,” said Craig Peters, the San Francisco attorney representing the boys. “You’ve got three schools, a playground and a senior center in the neighborhood.”

Julian and Peter have since been moved from San Francisco General Hospital to separate care facilities in the East Bay, where they are recovering from broken bones and head trauma.

Julian was set to be released later this week, but Peter “has a head injury that ultimately led to some bleeding on the brain,” Peters said.

“Peter has some neurological deficits that we hope are going to resolve, but it’s a condition that I think would be troubling for a parent to see,” he added.

4 felony charges

In the meantime, 30year-old Kirsten Andereck, who is accused of slamming into the boys, was arraigned in San Francisco Superior Court on four felony charges Tuesday afternoon, including driving under the influence, causing great bodily injury, and child endangerment. She pleaded not guilty.

Andereck is out on $200,100 bail and is required to wear an alcohol-monitoring device and to not drive as conditions of her release while her case moves forward.

Peters, though, said Andereck was only partly responsible for the wreck.

“There’s a good chance that her intoxication may not be the primary cause,” he said. “This is a roadway-design issue. And if it is set up as a trap, then to some extent it doesn’t really matter if the person is sober or not. A bad intersection is a bad intersection.”

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency identified the stretch of Bay as an area to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists after funding was secured under 2011’s Proposition B that voters overwhelmingly approved.

“Its just not really safe to walk around this area,” Danielle Golik said Wednesday while walking past the construction with her 6-year-old daughter, Kate.“I usually won’t even bring my daughter here.”

The two quickly moved past a steamroller as it smashed down steaming piles of asphalt at the Bay and Buchanan crossing.

Changes in works

The Bay Street work, which was designed in 2013, will eventually reduce the number of driving lanes from four to two, add angled parking, and dedicate a bike lane all with the goal of slowing drivers, most of whom are going 30 percent faster than the posted 25 mph speed limit, according to a study by the city.

The project was targeted for completion in the spring, but was bumped back to the fall while sewer pipes were updated. City agencies often work in conjunction to ensure work can be completed efficiently without having to rip up new paving.

“That coordination piece can slow things down,” said Nicole Ferrara, executive director of Walk SF, an advocacy group that works with city government to improve safety for pedestrians.

District Two Supervisor Mark Farrell, who represents the Marina, said last week that the wreck was caused by a drunk driver, and while the street needed improving, it needed to be “completed responsibly.”

But Peters isn’t satisfied.

“There are some benefits to bureaucracy, but when it comes to known safety issues like this, you don’t just say, ‘We’re going as fast as we can,’ ” Peters said. “You put up an interim measure like a stop sign.”

The section of Bay, however, is only one of scores of streets in San Francisco targeted for safety improvements by the MTA, and was not deemed as much of a priority as other, more deadly, roadways.

“Twelve percent of city streets account for over 70 percent of dangerous and fatal injuries and Bay was not one of them,” Ferrara said. “On this street, over the course of history, there hadn’t been severe or fatal injuries to the extent we’ve seen them elsewhere.”

Since February 2014, the MTA has done work on 84 different intersections with “quick and effective” improvements, she said, and the city has “increased their project delivery in a big way.”