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Driver learns why you shouldn't turn left in front of a trolley that has the green signal, police say
By adamg on Mon, 08/07/2023 - 1:16pm
Photo of respective front ends by TPD.
Transit Police report the driver of a small SUV who turned left in front of a trolley that had the green signal on Commonwealth Avenue at Summit Avenue had to find alternate means to get home - while the trolley driver wound up getting transported to a local hospital with neck and back pain.
Police say the SUV driver wound up with part of the vehicle's front torn off around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Police say the officer who responded to the crash did not cite the motorist, figuring "the inconvenience and expense" of having to have the vehicle towed and repaired was "lesson learned." And that specific lesson, police said: "PLEASE be mindful of trolleys/surroundings."
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Comments
Did they use emergency lights
Did they use emergency lights illegally?
Yes, of course.
But only because the State Department had confiscated their passport illegally.
Lesson learned?
The motorist injured the T operator and could have injured numerous passengers but thankfully didn’t. This wasn’t a minor traffic violation. This is a reckless driver whose bad driving should be on the record. Letting people off the hook for this crap sends a message: do whatever the hell you want on the road.
"The sentence for Fuck Around has been commuted
on account of Find Out already served."
Yeah no, there should be a citation as well -- something insurance doesn't cover.
"officer who responded to the crash did not cite the motorist"
Costello won't be happy about this one bit.
A car was involved
The driver of that car made an honest mistake.
Not a bike, who is going around trying to kill people.
You meant
Kinopio.
Yes, them also but for different reasons.
Spin has netted the Swamp Thing well and good.
Problems with the police response
The Transit Police should have cited the other driver.
The Transit Police no longer cite fare evaders.
The Transit Police no longer cite cigarette offenders
The Transit Police no longer cite bus stop violators.
The Transit Police don't arrest teenage troublemakers they release them
TPD can do a lot better.
If they started issuing citations for smokers on MBTA property, bus stop violations, and littering (entitled smokers tossing their butts on the ground), that money could be used to maybe help fund anything that works stop the ceilings falling down on riders.
It's a confusing setup.
It's a confusing setup. People don't expect a trolley to have a green light when it's legal for cars to cross the tracks.
The T's nonstandard and indecipherable "yield to trolley" sign doesn't get the message across. And even that doesn't exist westbound since it fell down around 2018.
Making the trolley stop at green lights isn't the answer. The correct solution is to have separate traffic light phases for these very conflicting streams, with absolute priority for the train. Like, it should feel like riding the subway. Train comes, it gets a green light without slowing down, and turning cars get a red arrow, period. If it worked like this, cars would hardly get slowed down, since they would only get the red arrow for a few seconds when a train is actually there.
But this is BTD we're dealing with, so it's never going to happen.
An additional issue
The T has a completely braindead policy where trains have to slow down to 10 mph to cross any street. So in this case, the car sees the train slowing down, figures it's going to stop, and then the train keeps going. This policy increases danger because of things like this, because when you see a vehicle slowing down at an intersection you expect it to stop.
The correct solution is that basically trains should always have a green light, especially since there's no reason for the cars to have priority for low-volume movements like this.
But the even more correct solution is to un-highway-ify Comm Ave because there is no need for 6 or 8 lanes of pavement.