Woman in wheelchair fatally hit by car remembered for independence

The 38-year-old Berkeley woman who died over the weekend after a city of San Francisco vehicle crashed into her wheelchair as she crossed a street was a public employee and leader in the disabled community, family and colleagues said Tuesday.

On her way to work Friday morning, while operating her electric wheelchair, Phan was hit by a worker on official business for the city Department of Public Health in the intersection of Market and Seventh streets.

For the first five hours after the collision, Phan was lucid, Trippe said, but doctors soon realized she had sustained head trauma, and her condition deteriorated.

A surgery attempt was not successful, and she died Saturday surrounded by dozens of family members and friends, who spilled into the San Francisco General Hospital waiting room and corridors.

The driver — who cooperated during the investigation — was making a left turn from Seventh onto Market, which was a legal move because of the car’s exempt license plate, according to Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman.

“That area of downtown is kind of confused from a traffic standpoint, so you take your life in your hands crossing the street,” said John Parman, an acquaintance of Phan, adding that her death should have never happened.

Officials of the group noted she was an advocate in the domestic-worker movement, once giving testimony in support of Assembly Bill 241, which created labor standards and solidified rights for such employees.