Kevin Kemper was on his Vespa, stopped at a red light at a busy Mission district intersection, when a dirt-bike rider rolled up behind, clumsily ran into him, and fell over.
What followed the collision shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday at 16th and Valencia streets was captured on video and shared on social media. The biker swung wildly at Kemper before charging at him and throwing him from his scooter.
“I think they’re just mostly hooligans that are trying to showboat and do wheelies down the road and things like that. Anyone that’s an inconvenience, they just take their problems out on,” Kemper told The Standard of the bikers.
The street fight started as Kemper, a robotics engineer, drove his scooter south along Valencia Street before stopping at 16th Street, when several bikers tried passing between him and another vehicle, he said.
“I must have cut one off as I was filtering up to the front,” Kemper said. “He rear-ended me trying to squeeze through between me and the car next to me, and dumped his bike.”
The video shows the biker punching Kemper and shoving him off his scooter. Kemper manages to regain his feet and run after the biker, who lifts him up before tumbling to the ground and pummeling him.
A second biker pulls up and briefly joins in the melee before several good Samaritans’ shouts and intervention lead the pair to get back on their dirt bikes and slink off.
Unsafe and rude behavior is common on San Francisco streets, said Kemper, who has lived in the city for more than a decade. He described dirt-bike riders as a recurring nuisance.
“I’ve seen plenty of people running red lights in places. I’m not particularly happy about the state of our traffic policies, but it is what it is,” he said.
Kemper said he was checked by first responders at the scene but did not require medical treatment.
Police confirmed the incident to The Standard in an emailed statement, saying officers responded at 7:08 p.m. to a reported assault and learned that a suspect on a dirt bike rear-ended the victim’s scooter. A Fire Department spokesman added that paramedics evaluated a victim who did not need to go to a hospital. No arrests have been made.
Kemper claimed he was told by a police officer that there was a possibly related incident moments earlier involving a pedestrian getting pushed by someone on a dirt bike near 24th and Valencia streets. Police did not respond to a request for information on that incident.