A person on a motorized unicycle was killed Wednesday morning in a collision with a Recology truck at the notoriously dangerous intersection of Octavia and Oak streets.
The collision happened just before 4 a.m., as NBC Bay Area reports, and the driver of the truck remained at the scene.
The SFPD reported that officers called to the scene found a male "bicyclist" who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The cyclist's name has not been released.
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Police gave few details about the incident, but said that impairment on the part of the garbage truck driver was not believed to be a factor.
Anyone who may have witnessed the collision is asked to call the Police Department's tip line at 415-575-4444 or to send a tip by text message to TIP411 with "SFPD" at the start of the message.
Update - Recology has issued a statement about the incident:
We have learned that a Recology collection truck was involved in a collision that resulted in a fatality in the Hayes Valley neighborhood early this morning. Our truck was driving north on Octavia Boulevard when it was struck near the rear of the truck by a motorized unicycle.
Safety is Recology’s paramount priority, and we are deeply saddened by the loss of life in this tragic accident. Our most sincere sympathies go out to the loved ones of the victim.
We have also set up grief counseling for our employees. We are working to fully assist the proper authorities investigating the accident and will defer further comment until their work is completed.
The intersections between Octavia and Fell and Octavia and Oak streets have long been regarded as problematic, ever since the transformation of Octavia Boulevard was completed over a decade ago following the removal of the Central Freeway overpass and Fell Street off-ramp. The intersection of Octavia and Market has also long been regarded as dangerous for both pedestrians and cyclists.
A fatal, multi-vehicle crash occurred at Octavia and Oak a decade ago, involving a UCSF shuttle bus and a big-rig carrying a load of cars. That accident was followed by increased debate about the success/failure of the boulevard design, and a UC Berkeley urban planning professor who worked on the project design, Allan Jacobs, would later semi-disown the project saying there were "things that could’ve been done better," and suggesting that traffic-slowing measures he had designed were nixed in the final execution.
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