By Bill Baker, J.D.
Editor and Publisher, The San Bruno Beacon
My prayers and condolences go out to the family of Rebeca Medrano who recently lost her life after being involved in an accident in San Bruno, with a van, while riding her bicycle. By all accounts I have read, Rebeca was a wonderful young lady with a very promising future. God rest her soul.
The most horrible, unthinkable tragedy that a parent can experience is the loss of a child. For those of us who are parents, we do everything that is humanly possible to protect our children from danger. The recent tragic death of this promising young student from Parkside Intermediate School reminds all of us how precious the lives of our children are and how we must work to protect them.
According to the San Bruno Police, Rebeca Medrano was traveling east on Niles Avenue when she hit the vehicle traveling south on Oak Avenue. San Bruno Police Commander Matt Campi told San Mateo County Times reporter Neil Gonzales, "It looks to be an unfortunate accident. The driver of the van was operating the vehicle in the proper manner. She (Rebeca) started to go downhill and started accelerating. She went through an intersection and ran smack into the van." When this San Mateo County Times article was published on 05/19/2008, no charges had been filed against the driver of the van.
8 words: defective road construction / improper and-or nonexistent signage. Because the inherently dangerous Niles Ave./Oak Ave. T intersection is located 1 block away from St. Roberts Elementary School and approximately 3-4 blocks away from Parkside Intermediate School, extra signage and other precautions should have and need to be put in place by the City of San Bruno to warn and protect the large number of children who travel through this intersection.
Is it possible that the City of San Bruno may be comparatively or even strictly liable for this horrible accident because the City of San Bruno failed to properly engineer and/or maintain the streets where this accident occurred and/or put proper signage on the streets? Here are some questions that need to be answered:
1). What was the condition of the roadway at the time the accident occurred?
2). What types of traffic control signs were posted on Niles and Oak Avenues and, if signs were posted, where were these signs posted and were the right signs posted in the right places?
3). What is the accident history for these streets and the Niles/Oak intersection where the accident occurred?
4). Did the City of San Bruno provide traffic signs that would warn a young person using the street about the potential danger at this intersection?
5). Was the engineering of the intersection and the streets inherently dangerous?
These are just a few of the questions that need to be asked and answered so that tragic accidents like this one can be prevented in the future.
Another way to help prevent this type of tragedy from happening again is for SBPSD Superintendent Hutt to have pamphlets printed up that provide detailed information about bicycle and traffic safety. These pamphlets should be distributed to all students in the SBPSD. In addition, the City of San Bruno should use its "FOCUS" publication to provide San Bruno residents with information about traffic safety in San Bruno and warn San Bruno residents about which streets and intersections in San Bruno pose the greatest risk to pedestrians and bicycle riders.
The tragic accident discussed above is not the only pedestrian/bicycle fatality that has occurred in San Bruno this year. Earlier this year, a woman was killed at the intersection of San Bruno and Easton Avenue when she was struck by a car and killed. The Easton Avenue intersection, where this woman was killed, has been the scene of numerous accidents. What has been done by the City of San Bruno to make this traffic intersection safer?
We best serve the memories of the two deceased people mentioned in this article by calling upon the City of San Bruno to make our streets safer for pedestrians and bicycle riders through better engineering and public information campaigns. To do anything less would be an open invitation to future tragedies. 