A bicyclist was killed Friday morning in a collision with a moving truck near Howard and Sixth Streets, and the subsequent investigation snarled traffic throughout SoMa. It is the first bicycle fatality of 2019 in the city.
The incident happened around 8:19 a.m. according to Bay City News, and reports from the scene suggest the female cyclist was riding a Ford Go Bike.
SFPD spokesperson Officer Robert Rueca tells KCBS that it appeared the woman was dragged beneath the truck. The investigation is ongoing, but no other vehicles appeared to have been involved.
Update: Bay City News reports that the Medical Examiner's office has identified the woman as 30-year-old Tess Rothstein. Rothstein was an employee at Medium and a graduate of Stanford, and according to her website she was a design researcher.
Grisly scene at 6th & Howard in SF, where woman riding @FordGoBike struck a truck and died instantly. The yellow tarp covers some of her remains. pic.twitter.com/VYwOnXsPTj
— Doug Sovern (@SovernNation) March 8, 2019
According to a text alert, the SFPD cleared the area and reopened the roadways as of 1:30 p.m. Friday.
The incident comes just days after a string of pedestrian fatalities on city streets that prompted Mayor London Breed to issue a directive to city agencies to speed up street safety improvements and remove bureaucratic impediments that are slowing them down.
Breed issued a statement Friday afternoon saying the incident is "heartbreaking," and "yet another example of why our streets need to be made safe for all users." She further said she had instructed the SFMTA to make short-term safety improvements ahead of some planned long-term improvements to the Howard Street corridor.
Noting that this was the first bicyclist fatality of the year in SF, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition issued a statement as well, noting that the incident happened "mere feet from a protected bike lane."
"Howard is a known high-injury corridor, the location of several delayed street safety projects, and one of San Francisco's most traveled bicycle corridors in one of our city's densest neighborhoods," the Coalition writes. "Howard has claimed four lives over the past two years. Without change, more lives will be lost due to the City's inaction."
This morning, a woman riding a bicycle, an electric Ford GoBike, on Howard at Sixth street was hit and killed by a truck driver. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition mourns yet another life lost on our streets at a location where thousands of people bike daily. pic.twitter.com/rkaNNi2niF
— SF Bicycle Coalition (@sfbike) March 8, 2019
