Witnesses: 5 Fulton Bus Hits Cyclist; Driver Refuses Passengers' Pleas to Stop
A cyclist lay bloody and dazed on Market near Fifth Street this morning, following a run-in with the 5 Fulton bus. More disturbingly, however, eyewitnesses told SF Weekly the bus driver refused to stop, even when passengers told him he'd hit a bike rider. 
Joe Eskenazi
"People were like, 'You hit a bike, you need to stop,'" said Mary Chancey, a passenger on the 5 Fulton bus. "He said, 'She fell by herself.'"
Chancey said around 10 bus riders implored the driver to stop following the 8:30 collision -- but he instead left the scene. When SF Weekly arrived just before 8:40, the young female cyclist was lying in the middle of the road, and police and fire soon arrived.
Multiple eyewitnesses on the street confirmed to SF Weekly that the cyclist -- whose identity we were unable to ascertain -- was hit by the bus, which continued onward. The victim, who was talking to police and appeared to be moving, was loaded onto a gurney and taken away in an ambulance.
Muni spokesman Judson True said police and a Muni investigator are on the scene. "Clearly this is a serious allegation, and we are investigating it now," he noted. True said the initial report he's received is that the cyclist fell near the bus, which subsequently made contact with her and her bike -- which the mangled cycle SF Weekly observed on the scene attests to.
Joe Eskenazi Police moved the cycle onto the sidewalk following the accident
UPDATE, 10:15 a.m.: True says that the reports he's hearing are that the rear wheels of the inbound 5 Fulton ran over the woman's cycle -- but that the bus did not make contact with the cyclist.
The operator of the bus has been interviewed by Muni and police. True confirms that Muni policy requires any driver who "has been told he or she may have been involved in a collision" to stop -- meaning this driver violated that policy according to multiple eyewitnesses.
Joe Eskenazi
Joe Eskenazi
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