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Bicyclist killed by semi in Back Bay hit and run
By adamg on Fri, 08/07/2015 - 8:56am
Surveillance photo of the wanted truck, via BPD.
A woman in her 30s was hit sometime before 7:30 a.m. at Mass. Ave. and Beacon Street, was pronounced dead not long after. The truck was turning right onto Beacon from Mass. Ave.
Mel witnessed the crash:
EMS on scene. Girl has a pulse but not breathing. Open helmet smashed and contorted. Rough shape. Girl's head split open.
She adds the truck was a semi:
I didn't catch the plates but I'm hoping someone else did. He/she needs their license revoked ASAP.
Penny Cherubino reports it's a a flatbed trailer with a red sleeper cab and a broken front grill.
IntestinalFortitude adds:
White writing, lots of chrome, two chrome air horns, hauling a “heavy load” on a flat bed.
BPD released these additional photos of the truck:
Anyone who knows where it is can call detectives at 617-343-4470.
The scene at Mass. Ave. and Beacon (Photo by Rob Colonna):
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
Go away.
Just go away.
Who gets to decide?
Who gets to decide who is part of this online community? It's not you. Your comment is neither helpful nor clever. The entire point of this type of forum is to engage different views on a variety of topics. It was a legitimate take on this topic. Don't be a jerk.
You been here long?
I suspect not. Perhaps you should see how vigorously this troll defended a guy with a driving record so bad that he actually lost his license in MA when said guy ran down and killed children. Troll even attacked the kids family and questioned their immigration status as a defense of someone who was driving illegally and recklessly.
Actually...
I've been reading UHub for a good 9 years now. I used to comment on stories back then but stopped for a very long time because of the sad comments levied by people not looking to contribute but only looking to put people down. Recently I registered this account and thought I would comment more since more of the topics have been about Kendall Square. To have truly open discourse you have to accept the bad with the good. You can always ignore people. Lowering to their level only encourages the behavior.
If we had an "ignore" option
If we had an "ignore" option, I'd agree. We don't and I don't.
Ignore option
Every human has an ignore option, you just like to get riled up by these kinds of comments. Everyone sees some silly number like 10,000 data points at any one time and we chose to ignore most of them and focus on only the several that we use to complete a task. You can ignore posts you dislike.
My "freedom of speech"...
... allows me to tell a perennially awful (often hateful) poster that I'm tired of his posts and wish he would vanish.
His comments are so frequent that it is pointless to say "ignore" them -- they disrupt and pollute the ongoing conversation. If the site had an actual "ignore" function, however, I would use it.
What I hear
What I hear you saying is that, in this case, two wrong make a right and that you do not extend the freedom of speech to someone you find distasteful? Others pollute the conversation but you don't suggest they turn it down. Is that because you agree with them which makes it okay? Are you suggesting UHub is not an open forum? I was able to register this account without providing verification that I would contribute in any meaningful way. Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why people post comments that upset you? Have you ever asked them?
If his posts were truly awful and often hateful then the moderator should block the user. One man's awful is another man's "The Holy Virgin Mary."
I give you my full permission...
... to hear what you want.
It's a free country -- and sanctimony is certainly legal.
Thanks
Thanks for proving my point.
That's because...
That's because you have an agenda and you're hearing through the sound of your own grinding axe. You are just like all the other bellyachers who cry censorship when an obnoxious person is told that their views are obnoxious. Your statements are both wrong and pointless.
My only agend...
My only agenda is to enjoy and maybe comment more on UHub. I see the same 5 people bickering back and forth and it ruins it for everyone else. I suspect most users don't want to be subjected to this kind of response but you have climbed your ladder of inference and only speak form the top. My statements are very clear and I have taken time to make them so. I have no axe to grind. I have no axe. How can my statement of what I hear from his comments be wrong? I asked questions, there was no answer. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. I have not commented enough in the last 9 years for you to even begin to know who I am just like. Please don't accuse me of doing something I have not done.
No, you can see her!
I'm serious. The easiest feature to pick out is her right arm on the handlebar and a triangle of white open space in the void between it and her torso. She may not be in black per se, but in the shadow of the truck in the video image, it appears she is in black. In other photos the bike is indeed black.
What the law says, from elsewhere in the thread
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2008/Chapter525
"No person operating a vehicle that overtakes and passes a bicyclist proceeding in the same direction shall make a right turn at an intersection or driveway unless the turn can be made at a safe distance from the bicyclist at a speed that is reasonable and proper.
It shall not be a defense for a motorist causing an accident with a bicycle that the bicycle was to the right of vehicular traffic."
Also, just go to fucking hell already.
huh?
Markk02474 wrote: "...Still, he is at fault." So he's agreeing with you that the truck driver is at fault here, since it's well established that the cyclist is female. Just because you (and I) disagree with most of what he writes, doesn't mean we have to insult him when he reaches a reasonable conclusion.
KneeJERK reactions
Many stupid people don't even read what I write, except the occasional person like you.
Sheesh
It's like you've never heard of how shadows work. You're decrypting a 200 px image to try and indict a bike rider for her clothing, knowing absolutely nothing about the situation.
Do you have any scruples?
Aaaand another fail from MarKKK
And? It was broad daylight on a clear sunny day. Do you claim that you are unable to see black objects on a clear sunny day? If so, perhaps you should turn in your driver's license.
I made no judegements
I was just making an observation to help people identify the rider in the video still. Contrast is poor in these things and she was in shadow, so just appears black. Could have been any dark color.
I will leave it up to you to decide if dressing to be seen is good for staying alive or not on the street. Its a personal choice, much like wearing a helmet or not.
More irrelevant blame-the-victim twaddle
For someone who wants everyone to suspend judgment over why the driver hit the cyclist, you're sure making a lot of assumptions about why it happened. Specifically, you are assuming that he looked and failed to see her because she wasn't wearing flashing neon chartreuse with a road flare on her handlebars. So which is it? Are you saying he didn't look? Or that he looked and "didn't see her" because she wasn't glowingly obvious enough, in broad daylight on a dry sunny day?
I only suggested he was looking in his left mirror
to make sure he wasn't driving into anybody as he moved into half the left lane prior to turning right. Immediately prior to the turn she was in a blind spot and it wouldn't matter what she wore.
Farther back along the road if she wore something more conspicuous and memorable, indeed, it could have saved her life. It certainly would not have hurt for her to have worn high visibility clothing.
It's an incomplete argument without facts.
Every time this happens the same arguments are rolled out. No matter what side you are on, car vs. bike, bike vs. truck, truck vs. car, everyone vs. pedestrian we all have stories how one time a person did this and I did that. What's lacking are the facts about this case. it's possible that everyone is at fault. Drive checked his mirrors, had turn signal on, cyclist tried to jump the light, light turned green, driver didn't recheck mirrors, cyclist gets crushed to death. Everyone is at fault.
The argument I want to see with this crew is comparing bicycles to horses and what would happen if people stared taking horses to work. This would allow everyone to get creative and bash some Amish who we all know aren't reading this.
Jesus
A couple of those tweets from Mel were rather callous. "Brains for breakfast is not what I wanted to see this AM." Point taken, but the victim's a person with a family.
Hey, now!
At least she took time away from sharing her hiking adventures to chronicle this particular event. Hashtag visit my blog.
No kidding
Kind of disgusting to tweet about how watching a person die messes up your morning.
I witnessed a fatal accident
I witnessed a fatal accident and it still haunts me to this day. Unfortunately, there are those cold, heartless types that witness something horrific like this and put it into the context of themselves. I hope lunch was more pleasurable for her....
Echoing what others have said
Echoing what others have said, there needs to be a follow-up from this accident. Could the semi driver see the cyclist or does the driver have a blind spot? If the semi has too many blind spots, then perhaps it's time to reconsider wether or not oversized vehicles are too dangerous for the city. Where was the cyclist when the driver of the semi hit her? Was the cyclist forced into a dangerous part of the street because of poor road design? Was someone double-parked in a bike lane? And so on and so forth. If improvements can be made to that intersection to make the roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians, let's do it. What about those two that were in the car that hit and killed the 2 pedestrians on Beacon St. about a year or so ago and then lied about who was driving. Were they actually prosecuted? No improvements have been made to make that stretch of Beacon safer either. I walk there regularly -- cars are always speeding on Beacon. Cars and trucks don't yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Are our elected leaders paying attention? Hello, Mayor Walsh? Governor Baker? Anyone??
Foot level windows for trucks?
This situation makes me think how the passenger side doors of truck cabs ought to have a window from the door handle down. Perhaps a low profile side mirror just in front by the door hinge too.
Several models of truck
tractors have exactly the type of low level windows you're describing. Haven't ridden in one of those though, so I can't comment on how effective the windows may or not be in detecting a cyclist who's right alongside the cab.
Any truckers on UHub?
Are there any truck drivers on UHub. I would value hearing an opinion of someone who drives one. It looks very difficult and scary to drive one in the city.
As people have previously mentioned low windows being mandatory let me suggest side and back mounted cameras. The technology exists and it's not that costly. A car I recently rented had both and they were amazing. I believe there is a federal law coming into effect soon about all new private vehicles having backup cameras. Does this apply to commercial vehicles? It reminds me of a time before trucks had rear "bumpers" and cars could slide right under them almost assuredly killing the people in the front seat. I remember the trucking industry didn't want to make them mandatory but they lost and we are all better for it.
More pictures released from Cambridge/Memorial Drive lights
http://bpdnews.com/news/2015/8/7/bpd-release-additional-images-of-truck-...
That's a long trailer bed
it seems from that photo. Needs a wide swing to make the turn. Also update is that woman was late 30's, not 20's.
What part of this matters?
How?
Like a tsunami to a cyclist
The ocean first gets sucked out and its looks benign to all while it should be a warning sign that a huge wall of water will come thundering in. When a big truck veers away from a cyclist and the edge of the road, the cyclist may relax for the extra room, but instead needs to take it as a dire warning that the truck driver is preparing for a right turn and a long trailer will cut a long way across your path.
But, if you are clueless, never mind.
You are clueless
I'm not sure how a person travelling at 10-15 mph could prepare to be passed by and run over by a vehicle doing 25-40 mph.
Because that is exactly what happens.
Aren't you going to cite the immigration status of the person being hit as relevant now?
Pilots Needed
When ports became too congested to navigate without local knowledge, certain areas required that ships hire a pilot to take over the controls and bring the ship into port.
Perhaps there should be similar requirements for trucks over a certain size: can't bring them into the area without hiring a local guide with special training and heavy insurance.
Warning on graphic details
I don't need or want gruesome details of the nature of the injuries in an accident.
In this kind of early news report, I think phrases like "was killed", "is in critical condition", "is expected to survive", and "was injured" are relevant, but not much beyond that.
There might be a time later, when gruesome details serve an important purpose.
I understand that a witness might have been shocked, and just saying what they saw, but news organizations don't need to broadcast everything.
WHDH is reporting driver of
WHDH is reporting driver of truck located out of state. Not much details right now
http://www.whdh.com/story/29738889/driver-of-truck-in-deadly-back-bay-cr...
Mass Ave is striped for Bike Lane - just not well.
I am looking at the intersection of Mass Ave/Beacon. When you are on Mass Ave SB on the bridge - the bike lane is far right. After the bridge, you get a right turn pocket and the right thru lane is striped with 2 bike sharrow markings (share with cars, share with bikes). Then the exclusive bike lane resumes to the right of the vehicle travel lane immediately after the stop line. Therefore, a cyclist proceeding south on Mass Ave beyond Beacon, should be in the lane that the truck was in when turning according to the camera image. You should not be in the right turn lane if you are going straight.
I am not saying it is not a poor design but there is striping inidicating the right THRU lane is to be shared with cars and bikes from the Mass Ave bridge to the Beacon St intersection. If anything, there should be transition striping for bikes from the bike lane on the bridge to the thru lane sharrow.
Awful tragedy - more bicyclist education needed
Sad to say but the truck driver probably didn't even know it happened. Truck drivers need better education and equipment to detect bicycles around them. However, as cyclists we can't wait for the other guy to improve. Bicyclists need to stay away from trucks of any size at all times. If a truck pulls up beside you while your riding - slow down and let the truck get far far in front of you, if you stop next to a truck - let the truck move and get away from you before proceeding. Ride far far behind trucks or far far in front of them. Unless we had a separated cycle track with a separate bicycle signal - only riding behavior would have prevented this accident.
My heart goes out the family and friends of this victim.
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