“The officer returned and cited him at the hospital,” said San Francisco police spokesman Officer Gordon Shyy.
The 86-year old man was cited for crossing the street instead of the crosswalk and suffered a fractured leg from the collision at about 2:40 p.m., Shyy said. He cooperated with officers at the scene.
Issuing a jaywalking ticket to an injured person may not have been a common in the past, but officers aren’t holding back.
“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 police department-wide directive to issue more tickets to not only drivers, but pedestrians and bicyclists, came earlier this year in response to a spike of vehicle-pedestrian fatalities, particularly last December.
From January 2013 to February 2014, the department handed out 54 percent more citations citywide, according to Police Chief Greg Suhr.
