The Burlingame e-biking youth and the August pedestrian death
Scott Mace
"On the evening of Aug. 8, the night of Fang’s death, a 19-year-old
driver was exiting a parking lot in a Mazda SUV when she said an e-biker
startled her by hitting her car. She then accelerated, striking the boy
and a 6-year-old girl (who survived) before smashing into the front
window of a poke restaurant. Some blamed the e-biker, calling it a
'chain reaction' (language police used in initial reports). Others said
a parking space outside of the lot created a blind spot for the driver."
[Witnesses say the motorist entered the street without due care for the
presence of the cyclist, which caused the lawfully-riding e-cyclist to
hit her car - there's your "startling" in another light. The so-called
"chain reaction" was hyped on Nextdoor and a local motordom-championing
free newspaper. But still more press continue to print the motorist's
version of this, thus feeding the general mainstream hysteria about
e-cycling.]
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/bay-area-suburb-car-crash-killed-boy-21026882.php
Scott Mace
Scott Mace
San Mateo Daily Journal
https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/no-charges-filed-in-the-crash-that-killed-burlingame-boy/article_89c9d6e6-36f7-4adb-9402-bd1723fbca93.html
Bill Sellin WAS15@
On Jan 15, 2026, at 10:29 AM, Scott Mace <sc...@wiredmuse.com> wrote:
No charges filed in the crash that killed Burlingame boy
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CABOforum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to caboforum+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/caboforum/22c0bebc-4a27-4085-8304-43fb94bd3b0d%40wiredmuse.com.
Scott Mace
Here's the text of the story
There won’t be vehicular manslaughter charges filed against the 19-year-old driving the compact SUV that struck and killed 4-year-old Ayden Fang in downtown Burlingame Aug. 8, 2025, San Mateo County Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Baum said.
Ayden’s father, Ming Fang, said the family did not agree with the decision, which Baum said was made because the DA’s Office did not believe it could convince all 12 members of a jury that criminal negligence occurred.
“We, the family, do not agree with this decision,” Fang said. “If that’s the way [the justice system] is set up, that the DA can make that call without the jury making that call, I think that’s a premature decision [and] unfair for the victim.”
The crash occurred when the driver pulled out of an adjacent city parking lot and collided with an e-bike traveling east on Donnelly Avenue. The e-bike riders, an 11-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl, were operating a Class 2, two-person bike legally and in accordance with traffic laws, Burlingame police Lt. David Perna said previously.
After the collision with the e-bike, the compact SUV driver
accelerated, crossing the street forward, over the curb and into
two pedestrian children and the restaurant, Perna said
previously.
The totality of the facts of the situation led the DA’s Office to the decision not to press charges, Baum said. “We didn’t think we would be able to convince 12 members of a jury there was criminal negligence here,” she said. “That’s not to say there wasn’t some other kind of negligence … because obviously it’s a horrible thing that happened.” Any consideration of removing the driver’s license would be handled separately from the DA’s Office, by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Baum said. “Given what happened, the driver should not continue to be driving,” Fang said. “She is proven to create a fatal mistake.” Particularly given that Burlingame has seen two other fatal crashes in recent years, Fang said he hoped all responsible parties would take action to prevent such tragic incidents from occurring in the future. “We, the family and community, would want all parties responsible and involved in this incident — driver, drivers’ family, bikers’ parents, city — to do what they can to prevent such things from happening again and make the streets safe,” he said. “They all need to own up to the responsibility.”
Was e-bike on sidewalk or street? [SM - street]Age of biker? [SM - 11]Legal electric bicycles or ‘other’ e-bike? [SM - legal Class 2]
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/caboforum/CC2AA9C1-7753-42ED-B12F-6FF789797545%40gmail.com.