PRESS CONFERENCE

* I have named my recent press conference Maimed Pedestrians on San Francisco Streets, Latest in Crusade for Safer City Streets. I am seeking tougher traffic laws by the County Board of Supervisors, by the State Legislature and by greater enforcement by the police in this city.

* I am now forming the "PEDESTRIAN SAFETY TASK FORCE" to establish solutions by working together to make sure results occur for the safety of pedestrians. I therefore want people who are interested in this goal to contact me so that we can include you in this task force.

* Our purpose in this crusade is to stop the endless carnage on our streets and sidewalks.

* In San Francisco, where a third of the residents don't own their own cars, pedestrian safety should be the citys priority.

* My client's mother is dead (in a cross-walk), another client has lost a leg (on a sidewalk), another client may lose his leg (sidewalk) - all because of the carelessness of drivers.

* I want to make sure that when clients come in who have been maimed or have lost parents that I can tell them it's not going to happen again! I want it to end once and for all. I think we can end it together but it' going to take a concerted effort.

* The simple act of walking in San Francisco is inherently dangerous.

WE NEED TO RETAKE THE NATION*S STREETS FOR PEDESTRIANS.

STATISTICS/FACTS

* Police say they issued 14,000 citations for running red lights and 80,000 related citations. The laws just don't protect people that are maimed and killed in accidents and I want tougher laws. I have been in contact with city and state officials.

* SAN FRANCISCO WAS RECENTLY NAMED THE WORST CITY IN THE STATE FOR PEDESTRAINS by Caught in the Crosswalk, a report released by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a Washington D.C. transportation research institute. Pedestrian deaths account for nearly half of all traffic fatalities in San Francisco compared to just 13 % nationally. San Francisco chief of Police Fred Lau said, "I think we're all concerned about the number of traffic accidents that result in injury or death; it really is a community problem for us."

* MARK LENO - FORMER SUPERVISOR, NOW ASSEMBLYMAN, STATES "SAN FRANCISCO IS ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS CITIES FOR PEDESTRIANS IN THE COUNTRY."

* A dozen people have been killed in the first six months of 2003, possibly signaling another ominous trend in the pedestrian death total.

* SAN FRANCISCO'S PEDESTRIAN FATALITY RATE RANKED THIRD IN THE STATE, according to California Highway Patrol statistics for 2000.

* SAN FRANCISCO HAS AN UNUSUALLY HIGH RATE OF PEDESTRIAN INJURIES. In the past five years, nearly 5,000 pedestrians have been injured on city streets, and over 130 people have been killed. Our seniors, youth, and citizens with disabilities are especially at risk for being injured and/or killed in a motor vehicle collision. Nationally, pedestrians account for 13% of traffic fatalities and 2.2% of traffic injuries. However, in San Francisco, they account for more than half of the motor-vehicle related deaths and about one-third of the hospitalizations, and have outnumbered or equaled car occupants in traffic fatalities in nine of the past ten years. ( Supervisor McGoldrick/ Board of Supervisors - STATED IN THE ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING THE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY ADVISORY COMMITTEE)

* WE NEED PENALTIES FOR MAIMING TO BE AS SEVERE AS THE ACCIDENT ITSELF. If you kill someone, you can bring a criminal case against them for involuntary manslaughter, if you maim them, you just get a citation and pay a fine. SOLUTIONS cont.

* Although an INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER charge can be brought against someone who kills a pedestrian, few are charged when this occurs.

* Criminal Legislation for those RUNNERS OF RED LIGHTS - need more serious penalties and greater enforcement (we all wait after the light turns green to make sure no red light runners go through first). Problem is some motorists treat red lights and stop signs as mere suggestions.

* Reduce SPEED LIMITS.

* MORE SIGNALS at dangerous intersections.

"IF THE FOREGOING IS OF INTEREST TO YOU AND YOU TOO WANT TO HELP IMPROVE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY AND STOP THE INJURIES/DEATHS, BECOME A MEMBER OF OUR TASK FORCE BY SIGNING OUR LIST AND JOIN ME TO HELP US MAKE THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO SAFER FOR ALL PEDESTRIANS" - Attorney Arnold Laub.