A 14-year-old girl was injured Tuesday morning after being struck by a car that was being pursued by police for an earlier hit-and-run collision, according to police and Supervisor Aaron Peskin.
The girl was hit shortly after 9 a.m. near Francisco Middle School in North Beach, Peskin told The Standard. She suffered a broken shoulder and ankle but is in stable condition at a local hospital, according to the supervisor.
The driver was ultimately arrested at 9:35 a.m. near the Embarcadero and Green Street, Peskin said.
San Francisco police began to pursue the vehicle after it struck a pedestrian near Jones and Market streets around 7:53 a.m. and fled the scene, the department said in a statement. The pedestrian, whom Peskin said was an Urban Alchemy employee, was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
After the first collision, officers found the vehicle moving recklessly in the Tenderloin and attempted to stop it, but the driver did not comply, so police began to chase the vehicle.
Police called off the pursuit after the vehicle struck the teen in the second hit-and-run collision due to "the safety risk the fleeing suspect posed to the public," the department said.
Authorities said the suspect vehicle struck other parked and unoccupied vehicles before coming to a stop by the Embarcadero, where officers took the driver into custody. The suspect, described only as a man, was transported to the hospital with what police described as non-life-threatening injuries that were "unrelated to the incident."
The department did not immediately respond to The Standard's request for more details about the driver's injuries.
Data from the California Highway Patrol, which tracks police pursuits across the state, shows that more than a third of pursuits by the San Francisco Police Department in recent years ended in a collision.
According to the figures, 57 out of the 150 pursuits initiated by SFPD officers between 2018 and late August 2023 resulted in a crash, representing 38% of all cases. In 23 of those incidents, or 15%, the collision caused at least one person to sustain injuries.
The data shows that over the course of these pursuits, a total of 36 individuals were injured, and two people lost their lives. However, the information does not specify whether the individuals hurt or killed were suspects or bystanders.
In March, San Francisco voters approved a ballot measure that gives police more latitude when it comes to police chases. The policy, which allows officers to chase fleeing suspects who are involved in property crimes, has not yet been implemented.