The SFist: Traffic Video Allegedly Contradicts Cyclist’s Story In Deadly S.F. Pedestrian Collision
Chris Bucchere, the cyclist who struck and killed a 71-year-old pedestrian and then wrote about it for the world to read, may be staring down some damning evidence. Although he initially justified plowing through the intersection by claiming that the Castro Street crosswalk suddenly “filled up with people,” and that he was “too committed to stop”, a law enforcement source close to the case says otherwise. Theytold KCBS that, after viewing traffic surveillance video, there were only three or four people in the crosswalk and that the bicyclist was “hunched down” as if he were racing through the intersection.
KCBS’s source inside the investigation claims the video shows the victim 71-year-old Sutchi-Hui stepping onto the intersection at Castro along with his wife and only one or two other pedestrians as Bucchere rides in from the north side. Although Bucchere professed in local cycling message board poststhat he laid down his bike in an attempt to make an emergency stop, the insider source says that Bucchere didn’t slow down at all.
Bucchere already admitted after the incident that he was headed back from an early morning ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. As we noted last week, that ride was being recorded using ride-mapping GPS app Strava, which allows users to post ride times, maps and speeds online. KCBS’s Doug Souvern speculates that Bucchere may have been racing down the steep hill on Castro in an effort to shave seconds off his imaginary race time to post online. According to a ride report from Strava, Bucchere’s last recorded speed was around 35 mph at the time of the collision. (Grain of salt: Cyclists familiar with Strava tell us the app’s iPhone GPS reports are known for being somewhat inaccurate.)
For his part, Bucchere has mostly gone dark since his confession, deleting most of his social media presence that has served as a sort of self-sourced black box in this case. Yesterday, speaking through his attorney, he told KCBS that he is allegedly still “devastated” but still does not believe he broke any laws.
