San Francisco police joined forces with the California Highway Patrol Wednesday to crack down on traffic violations on two busy traffic corridors, issuing 126 citations during commute hours.
The crackdown targeted Van Ness Avenue between Market and Geary streets between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. and again at 4 p.m. for the afternoon commute.
Between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. there was also extra enforcement on Folsom and Essex streets near the entrance to Interstate Highway 80.
During the operation, police issued 89 citations, while the CHP gave out 37. The violations included infractions for using cellphones and texting while driving and other distracted driving behaviors.
Other violations included failing to obey stop signs and traffic signals or yield to pedestrians, and seat belt and suspended license infractions.
The operation is part of the city’s goal of zero traffic deaths by 2024, a plan the city has dubbed “Vision Zero.”
Already this year there have been four pedestrian fatalities on Van Ness Avenue. There have been seven such deaths throughout the city.
Even as police were busy with the increased enforcement operation in one part of San Francisco Wednesday morning, a man believed to be 36 years old was struck by a car driven by a 20-year-old woman at 20th Avenue and Wawona Street.
The incident, reported at 7:37 a.m., sent the man to San Francisco General Hospital with life-threatening head injuries, police said.
The driver, who hit the man as he was walking on 20th Avenue, remained at the scene.
The man remains at the hospital this morning in critical condition.
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, which police said is a reminder for all pedestrians, motorists, bicyclists and others on the road to be safe.
Sasha Lekach, Bay City News
