In one such case, an elderly man hit by a car while walking away from St. Mary’s Cathedral on Geary Boulevard on Sunday was issued a jaywalking ticket by police shortly afterward at San Francisco General Hospital.
“The officer returned and cited him at the hospital,” Officer Gordon Shyy said.
The 86-year-old man was cited for crossing the street outside of the crosswalk and suffered a fractured leg from the collision about 2:40 p.m., Shyy said. He cooperated with officers at the scene.
While issuing a jaywalking ticket to an injured person may not have been common in the past, officers note that injuries are not a deterrent from enforcing violations.
“Previously, when officers responded to a collision, it was at their discretion to cite or not,” Shyy said. “But now, we just have a huge department policy that was implemented a few months ago where if officers are able to determine an at-fault party, they shall cite the at-fault party at the scene.”
The department’s directive to issue more tickets to not only drivers, but pedestrians and bicyclists, came earlier this year in response to a spike in vehicle-pedestrian fatalities, most significantly in December.
From January 2013 to February 2014, the department handed out 54 percent more traffic citations citywide, according to Police Chief Greg Suhr.