A host of family members, friends, disability and pedestrian safety advocates and city officials gathered at Seventh and Market yesterday afternoon to memorialize Thu Phan — a 38-year-old Berkeley resident and San Francisco Department of Labor employee who was struck Feb. 5th by a city vehicle making a left turn while she was crossing the intersection. Phan, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle-bone disease, was knocked out of her wheelchair in the crash and died of her injuries the following day.
The memorial, organized by the Senior & Disability Action Network and the Vision Zero Coalition, also highlighted continued pedestrian safety concerns in the area and citywide, especially for individuals with disabilities.
Speakers stood next to a wheelchair, which held Phan's photo and purple flowers, to share their memories of Phan and call on city leaders to finish the investigation into the collision and continue pushing legislation to further Vision Zero, the city's goal of eliminating traffic-related deaths by 2024.
Attendees place flowers and ribbons on a wheelchair in remembrance of Phan.
Kicking off a series of speeches, Jessica Lehman, executive director of Senior & Disability Action Network, said Phan was always proud to be disabled. She dedicated her career to working for workers rights, especially for those with disabilities, and had a determination to get things done.
Phan never considered her disability a problem, Lehman said, but as a commuter, the real problem was BART's regularly out-of-service elevators, which often kept her from getting to work on time. And she did have a fear that she would one day be hit by a driver that wasn't looking.
Joined by her younger sister, husband and child, Phan's sister Holly Michna said,"Living in San Francisco, you hear stories all the time about people being hit by cars, but you never imagine it could happen to you or your loved ones ... All she did was cross the street ... and now she's gone."
Michna went on to describe how devastated her family is and how the death of the Berkeley graduate and advocate for the disabled should be a wake-up call for city leaders.
Michna surrounded by family, friends and advocates.
The three members of the Board of Supervisors Vision Zero committee — District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, District 7 Supervisor Norman Yee and District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar, also took turn speaking, thanking Phan's sisters for their advocacy and highlighting their Vision Zero agendas.
Supervisor Yee, chair of the committee, noted that he's currently working on legislation to require employees who drive city and county vehicles to undergo driver training and installing telematics devices, or GPS black boxes, on city vehicles, which have been implemented by other cities and successfully lead to more responsible driving. Yee also highlighted the need to re-engineer intersections, and mentioned the idea of allowing pedestrians to begin crossing before cars are given green lights.
Before attendees marched to City Hall to address the SFMTA Board, Nicole Ferrara, executive director of WalkSF, outlined the coalitions' core requests to prevent further deaths on Market Street. Those were: remove the exemption that allows commercial vehicles to turn left onto Market Street within the Safer Market Street project area (Third through Eighth streets); clarify signage in the area so drivers can see at a glance whether turning onto Market is allowed; create leading pedestrian intervals to give pedestrians a head start when crossing the street; and better enforce traffic laws to show the public that there are consequences and drivers are being held accountable.
The driver who hit Phan, 67-year-old James Harris, has been found at fault in the collision, which saw him make a left turn onto Market in violation of posted signs. Police have said that city vehicles are exempt and allowed to make that left turn. But the Examiner reports that, shortly after the memorial, transit officials announced new signage clarifying illegal turns at Seventh and Market streets, and at least two signs were installed yesterday.
