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Man on scooter dies in collision with SUV in Dorchester

By adamg on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 12:52pm

Boston Police report a 52-year-old man riding a scooter on Blue Hill Avenue at McLellan Street died after a collision with a Ford Explorer around 9:20 p.m., Tuesday.

A male, 23, on scene reported to officers that he was the operator of the Ford Explorer. He further explained he was attempting to make a left turn from Blue Hill Avenue onto Mclellan Street and collided with the scooter.

The investigation is continuing, but the Explorer driver has not been cited.

Neighborhoods: 
Dorchester
Topics: 
Driving
Free tagging: 
Blue Hill Avenue
Scooters


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Comments

By erik g on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 1:07pm.

Yikes. That's right across the park from another fatal crash under similar conditions last year. Not a safe part of town to be on two wheels.

By TheVanJones on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 1:41pm.

Something needs to be done about the illegal scooters, atvs, and dirt bikes that are rampant in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan. It's ridiculous. They are dangerous for everyone.

By Greene on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 1:43pm.

Do you have a source on that, or are you just making this up because you want to be angry at scooters?

By anon on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 1:52pm.

as a member of the Properly Registered Scooter Community, there are two issues:

1) Limited Use Vehicles registered as Mopeds, to avoid the motorcycle license and parking restrictions.

2) Used (or stolen) small scooters that are not registered at all. They're fairly popular among people who don't have a driver's license and want to avoid contact with government authorities as much as possible.

So while this scooterist might have been following the law, many others are not.

By anon on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 1:56pm.

That must be a tight knit community!

By anon on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 3:39pm.

It doesn't matter what type of registration it had. The other driver is still to blame, unless the scooter was running a red light or stop sign, or didn't have a headlight.

By TheVanJones on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 3:16pm.

You're right I was assuming, my bad. But a conversation still needs to be had about it. The summer months are just plain dangerous.

By anon on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 2:13pm.

something needs to be done about SUV and truck drivers who cant be bothered to pay attention while driving these huge vehicles of mass destruction.

By Markk02474 on Fri, 03/29/2013 - 8:17am.

This would make it at night, thus reduced visibility and the importance of working lighting and bright, reflective clothing worn by the rider.

That aside, laws need to change so that motorcycles are less discriminated against in regulations and costs. Someone on a motorcycle is far more visible than a small scooter or moped. Both classes of vehicles can help solve energy, parking, and congestion problems by being so much lighter and smaller than SUVs. The range possible and highway use (of motorcycles) give them applications bicycles don't have. Bikes are sort of like all-electric vehicles in being range limited compared to hybrids. Much of the world depends on motorbikes for inexpensive transportation and we could take a lesson from that. More motorbikes on the road would raise drivers' awareness of them. Give them their own travel lanes too.

By neuroboy on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 2:58pm.

The vast majority of the time they're just dangerous to the scooter operators themselves (and the occasional car paint job).

We have no idea what went on here, and just because the SUV driver wasn't charged didn't mean that he doesn't share the blame of this accident. I'm not saying this is what happened, but as a motorcycle and bicycle rider I've lost count of the number of times I've heard "Man, you came out of nowhere!" when really they just weren't looking very hard or were looking for cars not bikes when they've pulled out right in front of me.

By anon rider cw on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 5:05pm.

For the one summer I owned a scooter before I bought a car (last summer) I was hit by cars on three separate occasions, all due to the sedan drivers not paying attention to their surroundings. I was t-boned by a Subaru in brookline that didn't look both ways before pulling out of a side street while I had no yield or stop sign/light. In jp I was hit twice by drivers behind me hitting the rear of my scooter. All this while my scooter was up to the speed limit, while wearing reflective clothing/helmet, and having all lights working. This was always during the daylight. The city is filled with too many careless, distracted drivers who don't take into consideration that not all vehicles on the road are the size of a Honda civic. I saw the driver behind me holding their iPod in their hand when after rear ending me, and the Subaru fiddling with his radio controls or something.

By anon on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 2:01pm.

Classic "left cross" - this happens to bicyclists all the time because drivers think they magically have the right of way and the bicycle must stop for them. Then they say "oh, I didn't SEE them" to the cops, because that's the magic get-out-of-anything card.

Left-turning traffic (the 23 year old idiot) must yield to oncoming traffic (the scooter.) Unless the kid is blind, cite him for failure to yield and the death.

By spin o rama on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 4:03pm.

Driver speak for "Oh, I didn't check my mirrors or blind spot."

By Anon on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 4:14pm.

Like, his colon.

Also see way too many SUV/truck things with illegal window tint.

By anon on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 4:54pm.

Yesterday I saw (and heard) a biker run a red light at Seaport Blvd and Surface Streets. Talking on her cell phone and laughing at a joke he just heard may have contributed to his negligence. Yet he had temper tantrum because he almost caused an accident with an oncoming car that had the right of way - and could not have seen the biker try to "fly" through the intersection. The sad thing is that he had a cow instead of being grateful that he wasn't killed.

If the man who died had family or friends then I offer condolences to them. But if his death can teach other folks to be more careful then maybe his death will have done some good.