In November 2021, a driver hit and killed Andrew Zieman, a teacher at Sherman Elementary, on the sidewalk in front of his school. The SFMTA and Supervisor Catherine Stefani promised changes, but then canceled the most important one, a road diet from 3 lanes to 2, saying it would delay cars. Andrew's father made these comments at an SFMTA board hearing in March 2024.
Thanks for giving us a chance to speak. My name's Richard Zieman.
My son Andrew was killed on Franklin. I've been talking about it all day and I'm being choked up, but — by a speeding car. Actually a parent from the elementary school up the street, doing about 40. He was on the sidewalk, he wasn't in the intersection. It should've just been — where it was, a school zone, it should've just been, if an accident, just a regular one that he would have told us about, but he ended up being killed against the wall, against the building.
The sad part is, is the speeding driver — he wasn't going that much faster than everyone else. The speed on that street is such that all those things you should be aware of in a school zone — kids running out, parents chasing kids — no, no chance to stop. If that had been a kid running out, they would've splattered that kid all over the intersection.
And the other upsetting thing is nobody was surprised. No one. Every interview on the street. Every politician: Supervisor Stefani. "It's Franklin Street," you know? I think even the MTA has released a couple statements that we have 38 collisions down that street culminating in Andrew and now we're going to do something.
And I'm glad they're putting a camera there, but I hope you understand that this is just one thing. You know, I was surprised the other day to see a protest, had no idea who they were, people were holding Andrew's signs up. Because they're claiming the MTA, you guys are not doing what you said you would do to slow that traffic down.
You know, Franklin's not a freeway. There's no standard that says we must have fast speed down there. I actually remember as a kid, if you were speeding, you went from red light to red light. That got changed over the years.
And I'm just gonna end with this. What we saw in West Portal, as horrible as that was, and while all the facts aren't out, it told us one thing. Speeding is deadly. Those people had no chance with a speeding SUV. These cameras are great, I'm not gonna tell you all the city streets they need to go on, you probably know that better than I do, but that's not all that needs to be done. Thank you.
