KIROLA v. THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO

5. Safety Hazards

155. Kirola alleges that the City is in violation of the ADA due to the lack of a general policy for addressing safety hazards. She alleges that "it is well-settled that public entities have a duty to remove disability access barriers that constitute safety hazards to persons with mobility disabilities" and that "the City has no written policies or practices in place to either identify safety hazards, or ensure their prompt removal from the City's pedestrian right of way and the other facilities at issue herein." Dkt. 604; 20:19-21:7. There is no authority holding that a public entity must adopt a written policy or procedure relating specifically to safety hazards. But even if there were, Kirola has failed to present any evidence establishing that the lack of such a policy resulted in the denial of program access to any particular program, service or activity.

156. Kirola argues that if the City had adopted and implemented "effective policies for the identification and prompt removal of safety hazards, it is likely that [she] would not have encountered steep paths of travel and entrances, sidewalks with excessive cross slopes and broken pavement, and uncovered tree wells[.]" Dkt. 673, 17:1-4. This contention is entirely speculative and unsupported by the record established at trial. Further, irrespective of whether the City has a written policy specific to the removal of safety hazards, the trial record shows that the City's existing policies and procedures adequately address these types of concerns. Both the library and RecPark programs use daily inspection protocols that address issues deemed to constitute safety hazards, such as wet spots or broken equipment. DTX A45; DTX Z60; DTX Z61. RecPark further prioritizes the resolution of potential safety hazards by categorizing each complaint received into one of three categories: emergencies (which are to be addressed immediately); health, safety, and accessibility issues (which are to be addressed within 48 hours); and routine issues. RT 2306:3-2308:21.

157. The trial record also establishes that DPW prioritizes resolution of potential safety hazards in the City's public right-of-way via its curb ramp grading system, which grades curb ramps with excessive running slopes—along with curb ramps with both excessive running slopes and excessive gutter slopes—lower than other curb ramps, thereby prioritizing them for replacement. RT 2453:18-2454:12. The City worked with members of the City's disabled community in creating the curb ramp grading system, ensuring that the system assigned the lowest scores to curb ramp conditions which the disabled community felt to be the most problematic or dangerous. RT 1607:17-22.

158. In sum, the Court finds that Kirola has failed to demonstrate that the City's lack of a specific policy for hazard removal violates Title II of the ADA.