Supervisor Chan’s death shows risks walking across streets
Early in the evening of Nov. 3, an email jumped out at me with the headline: “Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan struck by car and killed while walking dog.”
After seconds of absolute shock, I moved to protest and screamed “No!” so loudly that my husband ran into the room. I kept shaking my head in disbelief as though my protest could make the headline go away.
The next evening, I attended a vigil where over 100 people honored Chan’s life. Everyone seemed to be in a state of shock. As a criminal justice activist, I had witnessed Chan’s calm, determined, patient and fierce advocacy for families and children, the mentally ill, and for improving conditions in Alameda County’s jail. How could a life such as hers be obliterated like this?
The number one cause of car crashes in our country is not a drunk driver, a speeding driver or someone who ran a red light. Distracted drivers are the top cause of car accidents in the United States. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 80% of automobile accidents involve at least some form of driver distraction within three seconds of the crash. A distracted driver is a motorist that diverts his attention from the road to, for example, talk on a cellphone, send a text message, eat food or reach for an object inside the vehicle.
I don’t know the circumstances that caused this accident, but most of us know that it has become increasingly hazardous to be a pedestrian. I’m 73 years old and can no longer sprint to avoid an oncoming car that refuses to acknowledge me. Even when the light is in my favor, I make sure that people look me in the face before I step in front of their car. I can no longer trust that approaching cars will stop even when they see a flashing light.
The city of Oakland’s crash analysis from 2012-16 found that drivers failing to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk account for over one-third of pedestrian fatalities or severe injuries. The truth is that the entire state of California is a particularly dangerous place for pedestrians. The California Office of Traffic Safety found that our pedestrian fatality rate is almost 25% higher than the national average. Nearly 7,500 pedestrians died in California between 2009 and 2018.
No other state had more pedestrian deaths in 2019 than California. On a per capita basis, we’re the eighth worst in the nation.
I often wave my hands when a car is trying to turn in front of me even though they have a red light. My gesture is sometimes greeted with angry responses or a finger. Many drivers seem to have an attitude toward pedestrians: “How dare you slow my vehicle down!”
It is not just intersections or lights that we need to fix. We also need to fix our attitudes as drivers. We all need to consider whether we want our car to be a form of transportation or a form of violence. None of us consciously chooses the latter, yet our attitudes and driving behaviors contribute to the killing and maiming of thousands of people a year. What if we approached all pedestrians as though they were our grandmothers, our sons and daughters, or our mothers and fathers?
I, along with thousands of others, grieve the sudden, shocking and unnecessary death of Supervisor Chan. May our awareness of how quickly life can be snuffed out by our cars help us enter them with the intention of doing no harm.