The district attorney's office announced yesterday that Wallace Richardson, 65, the driver of the UCSF shuttle bus that collided with a big rig last summer at Octavia and Oak resulting in the death of Dr. Kevin Mack, has been charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. As S.F. Examiner reports, witnesses say that the driver was involved in a conversation with Mack prior to running the red light. UCSF has since installed seat belts on its shuttles, and some of the routes have been changed to allow drivers more time.
According to the Chronicle, Richardson was charged with a misdemeanor because "prosecutors found that he had acted with ordinary - and not gross - negligence and without malice." Richardson had also been involved in two previous crashes in 2009 and 2010. This was the second fatality involving a UCSF shuttle bus in a year. The previous crash occurred in November of 2010, in which 65-year-old Nu Ha Dam was killed in a crosswalk at Geary and Leavenworth.
Additionally, Wallace Loggins, 36, the Muni driver who fatally hit Emily Dunn at 18th and Hartford last summer, was also charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter last week. As SFist reported in November, Randolph Ang, 23, the cyclist who fatally struck 67-year-old Dionette Cherney at Mission and Embarcadero, was charged with involuntary vehicular manslaughter last fall.
