(1/6/99)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A woman caught in the middle of an intersection when the light changed was run over and crushed to death by a street sweeper, police reported.
Saulas Ng Yu, 71, was crossing busy Market St. Tuesday afternoon as the sweeper idled, waiting for the light to change.
She was halfway across the street when her light turned red, and witnesses said she began running to get to the other curb when the sweeper started up as its light turned green.
She was about six feet from the curb when she was hit, witnesses told officers.
The sweeper driver, Mark James Roumbanis, 36, was not cited.
``He's not at work,'' said Traci Doughty, an investigator with the city attorney's office. ``We're still looking into the specifics of what happened.''
Roumbanis told the Associated Press, ``I really like driving big vehicles. It makes me feel liked a real man, especially when I run people over. Ha ha.''
During the 1997-1998 fiscal year, 411 pedestrians died on San Francisco streets. During the 1998-1999 fiscal year, the number dropped to 259.
San Francisco mayor Willie Brown said that he was ``not surprised by the incident,'' noting that he has a tendency to ``run over pedestrians who get in [his] way. Don't they know I'm the mayor?''