It’s not just unfriendly roads that increase the risk of accidents for pedestrians in San Francisco. It's also a lack of prosecutorial will to come down heavily on motor vehicle drivers who have been involved in serious or fatal accidents with pedestrians. In the year 2011, at least 13 people were killed in pedestrian accidents in San Francisco. However, San Francisco pedestrian accident lawyers have found that very few of those accidents resulted in prosecution of the motorist involved.

Out of those 13 pedestrian accidents this year, 12 accidents involved motor vehicles. Out of these 12, 11 drivers have not faced any criminal charges. However, District Attorney George Gascón has been talking about changing the situation.

Gascón, who took charge at his new position in January, has been showing signs that he intends to prosecute drivers whose negligence leads to pedestrian accidents. He filed misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charges against a bicyclist who caused an accident resulting in a pedestrian death. Gascón has also announced that at least 3 motor vehicle drivers are likely to face charges in pedestrian accidents that occurred in 2011. At least one of those drivers caused the accident when he was driving with a leg cast.

According to a report by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the biggest cause of pedestrian accident injuries in 2008 was a failure by motorists to yield right-of-way to pedestrians. These failures accounted for about 41% of all pedestrian accident injury cases. This year alone, there have been several cases in which accidents have been traced to the driver's failure to yield to a pedestrian, but so far, no charges have been filed against these drivers. Gascón has announced that he will soon get to work on prosecuting dangerous drivers who place others at risk when they drive, but there is no indication of when this will be.

A lackluster attitude towards holding motorists responsible for pedestrian accidents criminally liable does contribute to an unsafe environment for pedestrians, because motorists don't believe they will be held responsible for their reckless driving.

Lauren Scruggs is the 23 year old fashion model that was recently maimed by walking into the rotating propeller blades of the aircraft she just de-boarded.  The plane was being piloted by a friend of hers and details of the indecent are not yet known.  Aviation attorney, Gerald Sterns, commented on the dangers of private aviation and the amount of risk that is present.  To view the full story click on the following link http://blogs.lawyers.com/2011/12/model-mangled-by-airplane-propeller-among-hundreds-injured-in-aviation/