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Pickup driver hits bicyclist on Western Avenue in Allston
By adamg on Wed, 11/13/2024 - 1:53pm
A woman in her 20s was taken to a local hospital after she was struck by a driver of a Ford F-250 at Western Avenue and Academic Way around 11:30 a.m.
The Crimson reports police do not consider her injuries life threatening.
Both streets were shut for an investigation (photo by a UHub correspondent):
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Comments
Jeez
I wonder why bicyclists want protected bike lanes...
*Stares at significant dent on front edge of hood*
or how about
the bike absolutely crushed under that wheel?! My then 6-year-old was hit by a driver of a pick-up truck while on her bike, and pulling her out from between the front wheels of the truck (she got lucky and just had scrapes all down her back and side) was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I am glad the report says this cyclist will recover, but...geez.
Correction
"injuries not considered life-threatening" != "will recover".
Not blaming anybody
but it appears this didn’t occur near the bike lane.
It sounds like you want to make a point
but are reluctant to actually make your point (perhaps because it is not a very good one).
Almost like it doesn’t matter
Almost like bikes are allowed to use the full lane of any road, even when there is a bike lane. Almost like the bike lane on this street is frequently obstructed and simply doesn’t exist right now on one side because of construction. Almost like when bikes are going to or from the bike lane or crossing the street they won’t be in the bike lane.
You are very much trying to victim blame here and it’s gross, baseless, and shameful.
This is an amazing and
This is an amazing and horrible photo. Visually, these pickup trucks inspire rage in me, rage at the people who designed them and most of the people who drive them. It may or may not be rational but my lizard brain feels like these things look like an enemy, a conquering force sent here to drive me out, and that the effect is intentional. I assume to others they just look like work vehicles or something.
I hope the victim recovers!
bigger doesn't mean better
The height of the truck can't be discounted. We KNOW, for a fact, that modern pickup trucks have horrendous blind spots, especially around the front of the vehicle. This is directly a result of trucks getting larger and taller. Multiple studies have shown that shorter people (children, for example) are completely invisible when in front of one of these monsters.
Right on the sticker, next to
Right on the sticker, next to the MSRP and MPG City/ MPH HWY should be a pedestrian fatality rating.
People who but SUVs and
People who but SUVs and pickups and other vehicles of mass destruction don’t care about pedestrians and bicyclists so a label wouldn’t do anything. It’d be like putting a warning label on an assault rifle, if anything the people who bit these things would just get more excited about the destruction they could impart.
And when pedestrians are hit they are more ….
…. likely to end under the truck than on the hood like in the past when pick up trucks were normal sizes.
Right. They receive fatal
Right. They receive fatal blunt injuries by the brick wall hurtling at them (30 mph is a three story fall), bounce forward and are/ can be overrun as opposed to being hit by a sedan and having their legs broken by the grill and the upper body slide over the hood and smash through, or over the windshield.
This looks like it happened
This looks like it happened smack dab in the general travel lane. Did the cyclist get “T-boned” crossing the intersection? Hit from behind? Other? Did this Class B behemoth just turn onto the road, or had it been traveling straight?
Knowing the details gives everybody general and local street-smarts. E.g.: learning the other incidents were “Left-hooks.”
Also, it would be neat if the news followed up with the outcomes of survivors in any kind of incident/accident. I realize there are HIPPA, privacy, resource and factual limitations, but maybe that’s tue domain of common sense, education and experience and not the role of the news…but it’d be nice.
P.s., her? The other two
P.s., her? The other two accidents at Harvard were women, as was a recent one near MIT. I remember a woman at Harvard being run over by a tractor trailer between the COOP and OOT News. I know there’s information showing (relatively frailer) women have poorer outcomes in crashes, but are women pedestrians and bicycle operators being hit more frequently on the roads?
I bike and drive through this
I bike and drive through this intersection every day and there's a bike lane that ends at a crosswalk about 30 feet behind where the truck is in the picture. I see bikers all the time that don't think to slow down before speeding directly across the crosswalk and there's no way to see them in time.
I wish we had signage and education about how it's only possible for cars to have enough time to react when people step into crosswalks at pedestrian speeds. (And I say this as a biker)
Walk and Bike here
I walked passed the accident site today. I walk past it most days! This is a really really badly designed area- pedestrian, bike and car intersection is horrendous. Accidents waiting to happen. Bikers coming onto the Western Ave walkway from the new Academic Way and Drivers approaching the same walkway are blinded to each other due to the separated parking. This is were the accident happened.
As a pedestrian crossing it is also very difficult navigating bikes and cars. The senior community who live next to this area don't have an earthly chance crossing safely. It is a well used walkway to Starbucks, Trader Joes etc. The juncture really needs a review and maybe a stop sign or traffic light. I hope that no one was hurt and the crossing is made safer.
Weird intersection.
The north-south contraflow bike lane ends with a stop sign at sidewalks before reaching the caution light request. But, there are also north-south side-of-road bike lanes that jog into the main lane.
Rumble-strips.
Put three rumble-strips in the bike lanes specific and safe for bikes in the lead up to (certain?) intersections.
People should be predictably pedestrian-ing in pedestrian cross-walks.
Drivers are only human who respond to predictable tracking cues and when bike operators break the predictable pattern by veering/jogging into a pedestrian crosswalk at vehicle speed…
Bike lanes save lives in aggregate (even if there is an increase in “left hooks” because of them and I don’t know there is data for that). Bike lanes increase driver awareness and calm traffic, but they may result in a reduction in situational awareness and increase in complacency in cyclists (And, I don’t know if there’s data for that either.)
Ha
Don't let details or facts get in the way of user outrage or the highest levels of virtue signaling that is spewed here every day.
Don't worry drivers...
... no one with power will do anything to reduce the massacre of vulnerable road users.
We've passed a hands-free phone law that has to be one of the most violated laws ever, right after the local speed "limits."
The MSP and Middlesex DA STILL haven't released the name of the driver who killed John Corcoran. Why?!
Vanity trucks keep getting bigger because people's egos need propping.
But thoughts and prayers
No mention of an
No mention of an investigation or citation.
Did you wince? I sure did.
That cover photo scares the sh*it out of me. SO glad to hear that the cyclist will survive. THAT is a miracle.
"non-fatal" doesn't always mean "A-OK"
Same here...Unfortunately, "non-fatal" doesn't always mean "A-OK"...it MIGHT mean scrapes and bruises, but it could also mean A LOT worse...
Box trucks and brodozers
Time to require them to have special permits and equipment to enter urban areas.
From the Harvard Crimson:
“ The victim, a young woman, was transported to the hospital with multiple broken bones and an internal injury.
The report stated that she was in a “stable condition.” “
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/11/14/allston-sec-bike-crash/?fb...
Typical speeding and not paying attention
Most motorists are unwilling to put their phones away and stay below 25 mph so both need to be enforced through re-engineering transportation infrastructure so that drivers can neither take their eyes off the road nor reach killing speeds.
A witness said they were going 35 in a 25
How, exactly, did they come to that conclusion? They thought isn’t a scientific method for measurement.
Let's guess
Here's one way: the witness sometimes drives and has a general sense of how fast they travel at different speeds. Then the witness saw this truck going down the street and estimated a speed based on their own experience driving.
But I suspect you are after a different point: there is no way to hold a driver accountable unless the driver admits to speeding while hitting someone or a witness happens to be nearby with a radar gun (in which case, I suspect you'll start asking how we know it's properly calibrated).
Keep making excuses
A jury of our peers scares the shit out of me
With people like you floating around.
Do you know how hard it is to estimate speed without a reference?
I’m not after a different point, just pointing out how flawed that witness is, but you take them as truth. Not everything has an alternative motive.
Don't worry
In a just world, it would be the defense attorney's job to point out the flaws in eyewitness testimony (of which there are many!).
But this person will never face charges, so rest easy.
Your claim that we can only consider evidence collected via the "scientific method" is frankly bizarre. "Is this the man that raped you?" "Objection! Violates the 'scientific method' restriction."
And you are worried about me on the jury.. LOL
Get out of here with your rip-off name.
How about a witness that was
How about a witness that was driving parallel that was going 35 miles per hour?
robo's reply (maybe)
"How could this witness be looking at the pickup truck to ensure they were traveling at exactly the same speed AND also be looking at the speedometer at the same time? I rest my case!"
“The driver told BPD he was
“The driver told BPD he was driving at 25 miles per hour down Western Ave and that he did not see the cyclist in the intersection before the collision.”
If you can’t see what is in front of you, your speed should be ZERO MILES PER HOUR.
How fast was his phone going?
How fast was his phone going? I big truck like that knows its exact speed.
Work trucks
“Trucks are too big” “the people that own them don’t care about cyclists” this truck has plow push plates and is obviously used for work purposes. Not many people drive 5 ton pick up for fun. The careless and entitled nature of cyclists is the cause of this 95% of the time. Running red lights, driving in the middle of roads with dedicated bike lanes, committing countless traffic violations daily never being cited. Can’t count how many times I’ve seen cyclists run a light and collide with a pedestrian on a crosswalk with the walk symbol illuminated. Massachusetts pedestrian and cycle laws lack common sense. It would make sense to yield to vehicular traffic not because we pay a slew of fees to operate our vehicles on the road but because in the event of an accident our vehicles go to the shop for repair and can be replaced if the damage is too severe. Pedestrians and cyclists on the other hand end up in the hospital or morgue when their ego and right to the road clogs their judgement into thinking there’s a way to come out on top in the event of a collision.
Fuck off
We've been plowing roads for decades with pickups. They've only recently gotten so big with such high hoods and such poor visibility.
And I believe you that you can't count how many times you've seen that - counting to zero, let alone 1, is probably pretty tricky.