|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
An elderly man out for a morning newspaper was knocked to the ground by a bus in Palo Alto last week and was hospitalized for three days.
The bus driver will be cited for failing to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, Police Sgt. Sandra Brown said.
Kin-Jian Huo, 86, a Lytton Gardens resident, was struck in a pedestrian crosswalk on University Avenue at Webster Street at 9:44 a.m. Oct. 16 as he returned from a walk in downtown Palo Alto to pick up a newspaper. Huo was crossing northbound across University Avenue at a green light when a SamTrans bus driven by Anthony Davia Lopez that was making a left turn from Webster to University stopped to let him pass, according to a police report.
After Huo walked past the bus, Lopez turned the bus onto University Avenue, but did not properly account for the long length of the bus to complete the turn without colliding with Huo. The rear left portion of the bus struck Huo, knocking him to the ground.
The bus driver told police he did not think he had hit Huo. He thought the elderly man had fallen.
The police report stated that Huo was struck by the bus on the left side of his face and his back and that he sustained a skull fracture and hemorrhaging as a result of hitting his head on the pavement. He was released from Stanford Medical Center on Oct. 18.
One witness has been located and confirmed Huo’s account of the incident. Additional witnesses to the accident can contact Palo Alto Police Officer Craig Lee at 650-329-2413.
— Sue Dremann
By
— Sue Dremann
By
— Sue Dremann
By
When will pedestrians realise that they are not infallible? When will pedestrians realise that in a collison with a vehicle, they are most likely to lose? When will pedestrians realise that just because they have right of way it makes them safe? When will pedestrians look before they cross and make sure that they are safe?
Isn’t it better to be alive than in the right and dead?
I am so surprised at the manner in which people step off kerbs and cross streets without looking and without keeping looking as they cross. We have to be aware for our own safety. A bus is a big thing and takes lots of space to turn.
A pedestrian can stop much quicker than a vehicle. Please everyone, realise that you may have right of way as a pedestrian, but it does not give you carte blanche to cross a street when and how you like. Crossing a street always, always, always, takes caution.
There seems to be no enforcement at the intersection of Middlefield Road and Colorado Street in Midtown.
Drivers blow through red lights at speed and make turns on red lights when pedestrians or bicyclists on green and in the cross walk.
The situation is particularly bad when it is dark— and it is getting dark earlier now– when kids and old people are still out.
Can the PAPD please put a motorcycle officer at this intersection?
I suspect quite a few offenders are intoxicated while visiting the 711 to get beer. This is going to get worse in the next 2 months with the party season
Resident,
I agree with you that pedestrians are the ones most likely to lose when it comes to a collison with a vechicle. I also agree that pedestrians can be very cavalier with regards to their own personal safety. But, in this case, the story states that the pedestrian was crossing in the crosswalk on a green light and that the bus initially stopped to let the pedestrian cross but then misjudged the length of the bus in making the turn.
I think this pedestrian was being careful, not cavalier.
This case appears to be one of a sp
Will he sue the newspaper, too?
I’m disheartened by the way everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon against this poor man, while speaking in generalities about the recklessness of pedestrians. In this case, the man had a green light and the bus gave him the go ahead. Then, when he was in the crosswalk, the driver ran into him because the driver didn’t wait long enough before turning. Frankly, it sounds as if he would have been better off just waiting while the bus ran the light, as often happens.
Where is your compassion, folks? Not everyone who gets hurt deserves it for being stupid. I hope Mr. Huo is feeling better soon and recovers fully from this accident, and that the accident itself will serve as a warning to pther drivers. Walter, aside from being a non-sequitur, your comment is just rude.
Thanks for the clarification, Natasha.
The worst thing in the world happened to Mr. Huo, was, as the witness mentioned, after he was struck by the bus, the bus driver stepped off the bus, and ‘dragged him cross the road way’, and ‘calmed’ the witnesses that Huo ‘was doing OK’, and ‘let this elderly man stood, and walked him back to Lytton’, told the PD, paramedic that ‘he was helping the elderly man for medical problem (dizzy, fall)’.
The bus driver was plainly ‘criminal’! Since, as the witness mentioned, the bus driver was pretending to help the hearing impaired elderly man! Since, Mr. Huo was not communicable at that time, pertained to the injury, suffering and shock incurred!
This is very upsetting to read about the fact that the victim, an elder man was dragged to stand up, after struck by the bus.
Please press Palo Alto Police and DA to press charges against the driver. He should not even moved him from the center of the street because what if there is a spinal core injury.
This charge has to be done so the seniors in the neighborhood have some peace and the driver need to pay for what he did to the victim.