Longtime Oakland Tribune reporter William Brand is still in critical but stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital after being hit by a San Francisco Municipal Railway train nine days ago, Tribune reporter Cecily Burt said today.
Brand, 70, who retired from full-time work late last year but still writes a beer column for the newspaper, was struck by a Muni N-Judah train at Second and King streets in San Francisco about 9:10 p.m. on Feb. 8.
San Francisco police Sgt. Wilfred Williams said Brand was walking southbound on Second Street when he was hit. He said the intersection is controlled by stoplights.
Williams said the cause of the accident is under investigation but he added that his department's policy is normally not to comment on the cause of Muni accidents or disclose who was at fault.
According to colleagues at the Oakland Tribune, Brand was returning from a food and beer pairing event at the 21st Amendment Brewery on Second Street when he was struck by the Muni train.
Brand worked full-time for the Tribune for 27 years. Before that he worked at the Contra Costa Times and the Alameda Times-Star.
Burt said she worked in the Tribune's Berkeley bureau with Brand for four years, some of it in a former storage closet in the Vista College building.
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She describes Brand as "not only a longtime colleague of mine but a good friend."
"Bill was very generous with his knowledge and contacts and always great to work with," Burt said, describing him as "a devoted husband and father."
Burt said Brand's life inside and outside the newsroom had its ups and downs, but always turned out OK in the end.
She said, "We're all hoping for another happy ending."
