Devastated Muni Stop Replaced at Hayes & Baker

Road-rage motorist destroyed Muni stop at Hayes & Baker. Photo: Tom O'Connell

New structure now in place. Photo: Michael Helquist

A motorist overcome with self-indulgent, destructive road rage wiped out a Muni bus stop at Hayes and Baker the end of last month. More importantly, he seriously injured a visitor to San Francisco who was waiting for the 21 Hayes to arrive. Muni cleared the smashed structure, the city swept the glass from the sidewalk and street, and today a new stop is in place. Almost as if nothing had happened. But the real physical and psychological pain, the slow-healing, the life-disruption and the expense for the injured tourist continue out of our view.

Force of Road Rage Crash in NOPA: Photos

Hayes Street bus stop obliterated by road rager who sent pedestrian to hospital. Photo: Tom O'Connell

Hayes and Baker, SW corner, Wednesday evening, April 28th Photo: Tom O'Connell

BIKE NOPA reader Tom O'Connell sent these photos in from the scene of the terrible road rage incident in NOPA that seriously injured a woman waiting at the Muni stop at Hayes and Baker Streets Wednesday 28th. He reports, "I came upon the scene right after the cops arrived and took photos. These show the force of the collision ... totally obliterated the bus stop."

For more details of the crash, see previous post here.

Road Rage in NOPA: Driver Badly Injures Pedestrian, Totals Muni Bus Stop

#21 Hayes bus stop so badly damaged it had to be removed completely

Waiting for bus: road rage made it dangerous

"People sometimes get behind the wheel and lose any sense of responsibility," Captain Teresa Barrett of SFPD Park Station said during a review of the road rage that left a visitor to NOPA with severe injuries and a Muni bus station demolished Wednesday evening. "It's a miracle that no one was killed."

At about 6:40 Wednesday evening a fender-bender between two motorists at Baker and Hayes Streets led one to fly into an angry tirade and then attempt a quick exit, according to Barrett. Before doing so the driver slammed his pickup truck into a young woman waiting for the bus at the Muni shelter at the southwest corner. He barely missed two other pedestrians also waiting for the bus and severely damaged the structure before leaving the scene. Barrett told BIKE NOPA that the woman sustained a broken leg with compound fractures, a very serious condition but not life-threatening. According to the captain, the young woman was a tourist visiting the city.

The hit-and-run driver was arrested near 7th Avenue in the Richmond district after several quick-thinking, diligent San Franciscans helped police officers from the Park and Richmond stations. "We had very good involvement at each phase," Barrett said. "People monitored the driver when he drove away and again when he abandoned his truck to flee on foot." Officers worked with the man's description provided by observers and traced the license plate. Then plainclothes police located the man and arrested him. He remains in custody and faces hit-and-run felony charges. He was found to have no license and was tested for drug use.

"My officers said when they got there (at the bus stop), it was the most horrendous scene," Barrett added. Thursday morning the shelter had been completely removed -- with a temporary street signal installed on the sidewalk, but glass remained strewn around the corner and on the sidewalk for 25 feet.