SF cyclist sentenced for manslaughter

A San Francisco bicyclist was sentenced Thursday on felony vehicular-manslaughter charges for striking and killing an elderly pedestrian, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the United States. The sentencing comes at a time when more cities across the country are boasting new bike lanes and bike-share programs -- putting pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers in each other’s paths.

Bicyclist Chris Bucchere had been riding recklessly and run three red lights when he struck 71-year-old Sutchi Hui as he and his wife crossed a street in the Castro District of San Francisco on March 29, 2012, prosecutors said. Hui died four days later of injuries from the collision. His wife was not hurt.    

Bucchere, a 37-year-old software engineer, avoided a jury trial by accepting a plea deal in July. According to the deal’s terms, Bucchere must serve three years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service.

The plea deal was reached after Hui's son told prosecutors that he did not want Bucchere to serve jail time for his father's death, said District Attorney George Gascon. A felony conviction for vehicular manslaughter could have carried a maximum sentence of six years in prison under California law.

Gascon said his office had done research and didn't find any other cases in which a prosecutor had obtained a manslaughter conviction against a bicyclist who hit a pedestrian.

The incident drew widespread attention and criticism after Bucchere, while hospitalized with his own injuries, posted his thoughts on the Mission Cycling AM Riders Google group.

"I was already way too committed to stop," he wrote. "I couldn't see a line through the crowd and I couldn't stop, so I laid it down and just plowed through the crowded crosswalk in the least-populated place I could find."

He later added, "I hope he ends up OK," an apparent reference to Hui.

Defense lawyers argued that the post showed remorse. Prosecutors said it was lacking, and Hui's family agreed.

As bikes become more common in cities across the country, laws are struggling to keep up.

According to Bikes Belong, an organization that advocates for bike-program funding, large-scale bicycle-share programs exist in nine American cities: Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Miami, Boulder, Colo., Madison, Wisc., New York, and Portland, Ore.

There are dozens more proposed bike-share programs across the country. Riders can pay one-time fees or subscription rates to access the bikes, which they can use to jolt from pick-up and drop-off stations.

In New York, bike advocates rail against slap-on-the-wrist charges for drivers who hit and kill bicyclists, while some pedestrians feel threatened by speeding cyclists in the city’s parks and bike lanes.

Paul Steely White, executive director for Transportation Alternatives, a New York-based safety and transit advocacy group, said the main threat on roads still comes from drivers.

“You're more likely to get hit by lightning than to be seriously injured or killed by a bicyclist,” Steely White said.

“So it's a man bites dog scenario that tends to attract a lot of media attention. Society has become inured to the daily violence that motor vehicles assert on bicyclists and other motorists,” he added.

Even so, another bicyclist pleaded guilty in San Francisco to misdemeanor manslaughter last year.

That cyclist received 500 hours of community service and three years of probation for striking a 67-year-old woman who later died.

Wilson Dizard contributed to this report. With Al Jazeera and wire services.