Stroller, van and car at the scene. <a href="https://twitter.com/chipsy231/status/1022226537490329600">Photo by Eileen Murphy</a>.
Update: Victim identified as Colin Thomas McGrath, 2, of South Boston..
WBZ reports two young children in a stroller were hit by a vehicle in a crash at L and East 6th streets around 3:40 this afternoon.
One child, 2, died. The second, 4, was injured, but survived.
The BPD homicide and fatal-accident teams are investigating whether the driver of a van heading north on L hit a Hyundai whose driver may have ignored a stop sign on East 6th eastbound - sending the van onto the sidewalk on front of the Foley Apartments and hitting a woman and the two children.
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Comments
"People in Boston just-don’t"
By Luke Warm
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 6:54pm
It is very unfortunate that the other poster is correct. I don't know if Boston somehow breeds psychopathy in motorists, or if for some reason the narrow streets of this town just cause your average psychotic motorist to express their traits in a more obvious way.
You see the psychotic behavior every single day all day on every street over and over again. But this tragedy, which seems so likely, is not less horrible just because it is predictable.
most of the psycho drivers are from the burbs...
By formerlyTheSoBo...
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 8:38am
...not Boston.
Evidence?
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 9:34am
You have anything to back that up? Either way?
And if they are, how does it matter? They will be the ones getting tickets and shifting routes if enforcement is stepped up and traffic calming is installed.
Nope
By Anon
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 1:57pm
People from Southie are just as bad. They ignore stop signs all the time because they “know†the streets. It happens almost every time I drive on the side streets. I avoid Southie for so many reasons.
RIP young soul
By anon
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 8:57pm
And condolences to loved ones.
The Rush To Judgment
By Oscar Worthy
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 9:12pm
The cause of this horrible tragedy is still under investigation. Do you think that people here can just cool it a little before the manic rush to implicate the drivers, the police, drivers in general, inadequate public safety funding, etc. etc.? The facts will come out.
Rather than real concern for the loss of the victims and their loved ones, it can come across as simply using this tragedy as a cue to throw gasoline on the fire or grind ones own personal axes. Which is its own form of disrespect at a time like this.
No. There is no logical
By Republican
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 10:08pm
No. There is no logical reason to think this tragedy could have happened if the motorists were driving responsibly. Someone messed up and needs to be held accountable.
One problem
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 10:16pm
There are plenty of data available that indicate that:
1. the problems being identified here ARE PROBLEMS
2. the problems being identified here RESULT IN FATALITIES.
So, go ahead and play the "oh gee golly whiz bang don't know blah NO FAAIR" game all you fucking want - the problems are known, the solutions are valid, and NOTHING IS CHANGING.
Even if the named and known issues turn out to not be the issue here (doubtful), there are still problems that aren't being solved that need to be solved before more people are inevitably killed.
http://www.visionzeroboston.org/focusing
Actually, Oscar Worthy is
By Rob
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 11:13pm
Actually, Oscar Worthy is right.
Yes, Swirls, you're talking about problems that do exist and can result in fatalities, but you don't actually know if they have anything to do with this situation (I'd suspect they do, but you have to keep a grip on the gap between your suspicions and facts not yet established).
The facts of the matter are slowly coming out. Early on all we had in the realm of facts was that this woman and her children were on a sidewalk when hit by a car (and one of them killed) - NOT what caused it. Now we have that the police are investigating some particular scenario - which might end up getting confirmed as the cause.
This one-note, "because cars..." kvetching doesn't do anything to help the situation.
It IS because of drivers
By anon
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 9:10am
You are not going to weasel your way out of that.
DRIVERS KILL. Period. Cyclists don't kill very often, if at all. Statistical blip. DRIVERS KILL LOTS OF PEOPLE.
Repeat: DRIVERS KILL LOTS OF PEOPLE. DRIVERS ARE THE PROBLEM. DRIVERS KILL LOTS OF PEOPLE. DRIVERS ARE THE PROBLEM. DRIVERS KILL ... etc.
Actually holding drivers responsible is the solution.
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 10:06am
If you look at the big picture, drivers are murdering people every day. In 2015 from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm
Motor vehicle traffic deaths
Number of deaths: 36,161
Deaths per 100,000 population: 11.3
How about we just stop calling it an accident? What is worse is that no one is willing to see that this is about money. If people took their responsibility seriously they would drive less.
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2012/04/inv...
Automatic governors are totally feasible
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 10:34am
My 2016 Subaru knows what the speed limit is on most streets. It displays on the GPS map. The only time it is off is when limits have been recently lowered.
The same car has several automatic features for braking and cruise control and other "eyesight" functions. If I'm in cruise mode, it limits the speed according to a preset following distance to the car in front - meaning that if I have the cruise set for 65 and a car in front of me is doing 60, I will also do 60mph.
It is entirely possible to build a car and a system where the car senses the speed limit from either a GPS file or a sensor on or near the road (could be an eyesight code in the paint on the road) and limits the car to that speed. This could be tested now with current technologies in places like school zones. Now.
A lot more sophisticated than a top limit governor is! And completely possible in current technology vehicles.
Yeah, please let's not blame
By MattyC
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 11:01pm
Yeah, please let's not blame the drivers. Particularly the one who killed a baby. They had a really important thing and were totally paying attention and by the way fuck you.
I don't know all the particulars
By anon
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 9:01am
and I'm betting you don't either. I feel horrible for the parents, family and friends of this child. My condolences to them. I was in a car accident once where we were hit by someone who had a heart attack while driving. You never know what the circumstances may be. No matter how this happened, it's a terrible tragedy.
He probably knows quite a bit
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 9:37am
As he lives in the neighborhood and has children that age.
Also, people only rarely "just have a heart attack" - they often have clinically evident symptoms of cardiovascular disease for years before that. Which is why I think drivers - including me - should have to present evidence of having had a recent physical to renew a license.
I'm all for providing proof
By RoseMai
Thu, 08/02/2018 - 11:44am
I'm all for providing proof that you can still see, and are cognitively with it enough to drive.
But considering the state of the American people (2/3 of us are overweight... diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, as a people we're not beacons of health), if we ruled out people that might have a heart attack/stroke/seizure/whatever someday, there'd be basically no one left on the road.
Which would be my ideal world actually, if the US had much, much better and more public transportation.
To be fair
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 07/27/2018 - 9:50am
That scenario is ridiculously unlikely. By the way, do you mean to say that people with serious health problems are unaware? How is this different than driving while intoxicated or sleep deprived? Again you refuse to hold the driver responsible for controlling the car. If we could admit that driving requires responsibility for the consequences, instead of treating it as the addictive compulsion that fuels capitalism then there would be less death.
also
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 07/27/2018 - 9:51am
People were much healthier when they walked a few miles every day.
I wasn't disagreeing with
By RoseMai
Thu, 08/02/2018 - 11:46am
I wasn't disagreeing with anything you said... I actually agree with all your points.
That isn't the point
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 07/27/2018 - 10:28am
The point of making people get a doc's note to renew their license is to get people to see their doctor and get treatment for medical conditions that are clinically evident but still benign. It can also get those who refuse to take care of their health to do so if they want to keep their license (e.g. not deny that they have type II diabetes).
For example, my mother had malignant hypertension for years but did not get treatment for it until she could no longer deny it. The small strokes she had as a result accumulated, and she was also at risk of having a stroke behind the wheel. That's an example of a big problem that started with a small problem that is treatable.
"Cars are...ahh...gonna hit you"
By eherot
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 9:42pm
So does that mean this neighborhood will get priority in the mayor's list of favored places to receive "slow streets" treatment? And does that mean that the streets in my neighborhood (which have the exact same problem) will have to wait even longer?
Here's a crazy idea: Throw some real resources at this problem and add traffic calming to EVERY street in Boston THIS YEAR.
Traffic violations are the BPD's deadly blind spot.
By rb
Wed, 07/25/2018 - 11:08pm
Everyone on this thread seems to agree, so why does nothing change?
I've not experienced this issue in other places where I've spent a lot of time -- Somerville, Cambridge, NYC, even Memphis. BPD makes a point to look the other way, and drivers know that they'll get away with almost every bad decision they make.
Sincere condolences to the friends and family of the children impacted by today's accident.
For sure
By anonamizzle
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 10:59am
I drive once a week usually. My route takes me through Boston, then Brookline, then Boston.
In Boston, people drive however the fuck they want. It's totally fine, if someone is driving slower or more hesitantly than you would like, to go flying around them where there isn't a lane. Stop signs and red lights are a suggestion. Police officers who see these sorts of things don't act upon them. When I've called in and told the city I witnessed an officer do nothing about something that could have killed people, I'm told the officers have more important things to do, like deal with robberies, murders, or sitting in their cars because there's construction nearby.
In Brookline, there are officers stationed during peak travel periods at intersections to make sure no one blocks the intersection. There are officers at school and work start/stop times to make sure no one parks unsafely. There are frequent speed traps set up to ticket drivers who are driving perfectly safely 5-10 mph over the speed limit on arterial roads. There are officers stopping cyclists who carefully ride across intersections using the pedestrian signal rather than getting off their bikes to walk them.
Maybe Boston could aim for something somewhere in between these two extremes?
Take insurance lobbyists out of traffic tickets
By O-FISH-L
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 12:04am
One of the main reasons few fines are written is that police don't want to be revenue agents for insurance companies who currently profit off tickets. The courts have supported officer discretion in giving warnings, verbal or written so that is what often happens. Get the insurance lobbyists out of the mix while allowing insurance companies to decide who they want to insure, one or two tickets a year vs. ten a year but not profit on each ticket.
I will defer to Pete Nice but BPD could bring back the dedicated traffic car in each district or high risk area. Your neighborhood patrol car isn't going to get into anything but the most egregious traffic violations, too busy. As for Day Boulevard, State Police are often running one trooper on the desk and two or three on the road from the tunnels to the Braintree split, including the beaches and parks. Better chance of hitting Megamillions than getting a ticket. At one point the Registry Police and State Police had a "55 team" (speed limit 55) that focused only on traffic violations but now more focused on transgender rights and other PC units. Little enforcement.
WTF?
By anon
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 9:09am
Insurance companies SHOULD profit off tickets.
Don't want a surcharge - follow the rules!
Funny how you like the whole "follow the rules" thing when talking about black people.
.
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 9:40am
.
BULLSHIT ^100
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 9:40am
What a waste of neurotransmitters that was.
I don't think they are worried about insurance companies so much
By Pete Nice
Thu, 07/26/2018 - 9:44am
But here are some of my thoughts:
First there are still traffic cars in most districts, and they have all sorts of analysts, charts, maps, studies, etc where they make cars go to specific areas for 'hot spot" enforcement. Most of these "hot spots" are not dangerous areas where people get killed, but areas where people are rear ending each other in heavy traffic because they are texting. I'm not privy to a lot of this information but I guarantee East 6th and L St are not on any hot spot radar, or any sort of complaint areas (where police also respond).
Second is that a lot of these spots are simply not great spots to "pull cars over". The logistics of car stops is something that is difficult to explain, but in order to issue a ticket, you need to see the violation, pull the car over on foot or in your vehicle (meaning you need to position yourself and your vehicle in a certain area), make sure the location where the vehicle is pulled over is safe, not blocking traffic, etc.
Related to the 2nd point, when an officer shows up to that complaint area, people stop breaking the law because they either see the cop, or get flashed/warned by other drivers.
3rd is basically the outrage for the lack of enforcement on this page is not reflected in the complaints received in each district. I bet anything that if 2-3 separate people call about a specific traffic complaint there will be a police response to that complaint.
A distant fourth is this Ferguson Effect where officers are simply doing less work because they are afraid of being called a racist and supervisors aren't really pressing them on this issue. The number of citations dropped statewide almost 50% I believe over the last 10 years.
And it is the opposite regarding the most egregious traffic violations. I could go to 1000 Centre St. by the Faulkner Hospital and get about 15 speeding citations an hour. I could stand at L St. and East 6th and probably get 5 a day (3 of them would be BS rolling stop signs). It looks like I'm doing more work on Centre St. because I'm getting more citations and I'm visible.
My heart breaks
By LeslieOlson
Mon, 07/30/2018 - 8:50am
Hello
My heart breaks for the parents, family,extended family of this beautiful little boy. I am retired navy veteran and lived in South Boston when I did a tour of duty at Naval Air Station . I love south boston and am in south boston frequently. Your little boy will be your guardian angel and watch over you and the community of south boston forever. Again my deepest sympathy.
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