Posted on 12/07/2005 7:44:32 AM PST by SmithL
San Francisco police did not perform a drug or alcohol test on the Municipal Railway driver who struck and killed a 56-year-old woman and are now barred from the transit agency's own test results because of a city interpretation of federal law, authorities said Tuesday.
Federal law requires that authorities test any bus driver involved in a fatal accident for drugs and alcohol. Normally, the police would conduct such a test.
However, officers who responded to Van Ness Avenue and Jackson Street just after 6:30 a.m. Monday initially thought the woman who had been hit by a 27-Bryant bus, Qiong Zhen Yu Zhou, had suffered only a broken leg. They arrived at a preliminary conclusion that the driver, whose identity officials refuse to release, was not intoxicated, and they decided not to have him tested.
The driver gave an initial statement and then was taken away by Muni officials, who gave him a urine test and took him off driving duties pending the outcome of an investigation. Yu Zhou, who had been run over by the bus, died later Monday morning at San Francisco General Hospital.
Muni does not provide police with the results of its drug and alcohol tests, under orders from the city attorney. Matt Dorsey, spokesman for the city attorney, said the same federal law that requires the test dictates that the results can be shared only with federal investigators.
If the Police Department had done the test on its own, he said, the results could be used by police in a criminal investigation. But if Muni, whose investigators work for the city attorney, performs the same test, Muni is bound by law not to share the results without a court order and employee consent, Dorsey said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
"Federal law requires that authorities test any bus driver involved in a fatal accident for drugs and alcohol"
That's a federal law? I guess it's one of the laws agreed to in exchange for some blackmail money.
so, how come the driver's identity is being kept secret?
Are our police subject to the same testing when someone dies in a police involved shooting?
New Orleans makes SF look like that shinning city on the hill.
how about that shining city on Nob Hill?
Come to think about it, New Orleans even makes Burbank seem like a Shangri La and center of ethical standards.</p>
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.