Woman, 26, in Serious Condition : Willie Brown’s Car Strikes Bicyclist at Capitol

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, driving a black Jaguar, struck a woman bicyclist today as Brown was entering the state Capitol garage.

A witness said the bicyclist, Barbara Weiss, 26, was tossed into the air and landed on a cement curb at the side of the drive opposite 12th Street, leading to the garage under the Capitol.

Police Officer John Dahl said Weiss suffered a cut on the back of her head. She was taken by ambulance to Kaiser Hospital, where she was listed as in serious condition but conscious and talking.

Brown, 50, a San Francisco Democrat, was returning from a speech to University of California alumni at a downtown hotel.

He told police that he was driving at less than 15 m.p.h. when he saw the bicycle crossing in front of him from the sidewalk along L Street on the north side of the Capitol.

“She was going faster than I was. She was moving,” Brown said.

A witness, Osa Manoa, said she was walking across 12th Street when she heard the screech of brakes and looked up to see the Jaguar hit the bicycle and the woman tossed into the air.

She said she remembers noticing that the light was turning from green to yellow at the time of the accident, after Brown’s car was through the intersection.