An SUV driver struck a cyclist in the center bike lane on Valencia Street Friday night, sending the rider to the hospital for what officials described as non-life-threatening injuries.
Aftermath of the collision caught on video and posted to X by @friscolive415 shows the cyclist seated on the ground in the middle of the street outside the San Francisco Police Department’s Mission Station while paramedics from the San Francisco Fire Department administer aid.
According to @friscolive415, the driver was making an abrupt U-turn across the bike lane when they collided with the cyclist.
SFPD did not immediately respond to The Standard’s request for comment Friday night.
A nasty accident just occurred on the Valencia center bike lane where the driver of a giant SUV made a sudden u-turn across the center lane taking out a biker who appears to possibly be a good delivery fellow. The biker appears to be in shock and was spitting up blood.… pic.twitter.com/B7FCW3Apc1
— FriscoLive415 (@friscolive415) June 29, 2024
SFFD spokesperson Capt. Justin Schorr confirmed the incident to The Standard, saying the department was dispatched to the scene at Sycamore and Valencia streets at 7:22 p.m. and that the cyclist was sent to San Francisco General Hospital.
It’s unclear whether the SUV driver was arrested.
In the video posted by @friscolive415, a man could be seen standing against a parked SUV that was apparently the same vehicle involved in the incident.
According to @friscolive415’s video narration, the man driving the SUV “made a herky-jerky U-turn and basically T-boned this gentleman [the cyclist] on the ground, who’s in shock and spitting up blood.”
The center bike lane along Valencia has been the subject of heated debate as the city mulls replacing it with side-running lanes—a plan opposed by one merchant group and backed by a splinter faction.
Earlier this month, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board endorsed removing the center-running lanes in a preliminary vote that included neither a replacement plan nor a timeline for when it would happen.
Christopher White, head of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, told The Standard that he just happened to come upon the scene crash right after it happened and was able to glean some details from officers before they told him to move on.
According to the cops he spoke to, White said the SUV turned into the bike lane where there’s a gap in front of the police station for patrol cars to cross into the SFPD parking lot.
The cyclist appeared to have been using an electric delivery bike, White continued. The SUV driver remained on scene, he said, but it was unclear what kinds of consequences they faced.
The incident is another example of why the coalition wants the city to fix the cycling infrastructure along that corridor.
“This gap in the bike lane has been a contentious aspect of the design that we’ve opposed because it would invite exactly this kind of illegal behavior,” White concluded. “It has been maintained at the insistence of SFPD.”