It was just after 6:05 on Thursday evening on a fairly calm 17th Street when another young mother riding with her small child was thrown to the pavement by the Muni train tracks as she approached Sanchez Street. Both mother and son were wearing helmets but the child still hit the pavement hard and his face was not fully protected.

The mother in this case was not seriously injured and was able to lock her bike to a nearby pole and call a cab to take her and her son to the hospital. Neighbors on scene held the two year old child for her and lent assistance as they could. We are all just praying now for the small boy who may be fine but head trauma is a mysterious thing and can be very serious.

We actually have her approach and the fall on video and we will look at that footage in a moment. But while we are here let’s look at the street and the tracks right where this occurred.

“I just arrived in minutes later but it looked like there were cars alongside and maybe she hit that bike on the track and fell over. The little boy had a huge bump on his head. He had his helmet on but he really looked like he was gonna get some black eyes. It was just right over here; their bike was sitting right here. There were cars in the lane where you’d normally go.”  – Person walking by on 17^th St., 9-1-2016.

We caught her approach as she rolled down 17th Street and our camera caught the immediate aftermath of the crash but she was far down the street and the giant brown delivery truck was passing at the exact same time. I would put the film on hd and large screen to see what happened. But it is clear, even with the distance.

First we have the approach, passing the house and then she heads toward Sanchez Street for the actual fall when she crosses that center track. Had that truck been three seconds behind schedule and you would be seeing this on the night time news as a double fatality.

The next two photo’s are from different sources. One was taken immediately following the accident you just witnessed. The second was of the same basic spot but at a different time. It was posted to the nextdoor discussion on this topic. Apparently, parking causes hazardous conditions here quite frequently.

If you wish to read more on this specific problem we have this website (OffTrackSanFrancisco.com) and our sister site (offtracksanfrancisco.tumblr.com) which has more videos graphically demonstrating the dangers of these tracks. We are trying to get The City to fix this problem and so far they are refusing to acknowledge or mitigate this hazard on our area’s main bike path. We hope that attitude will change at some point soon.