Cyclist Struck And Killed At Beacon and Charlesgate

(via)

Apparently she was struck by a dump truck.

This afternoon, MIT visiting scientist Dr. Kanako Miura, 36, died in a bicycle accident in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. Miura was a native of Japan and had been at MIT since the fall of 2012. Within MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Miura worked in the laboratory of Russ Tedrake, an associate professor of computer science and engineering. (via)

At about 3:34pm, on Sunday, May 19, 2013, officers from District D-4 (South End) responded to an accident involving a motor vehicle and a female bicyclist. On arrival, officers located a female victim suffering from what appeared to be life threatening injuries. As a result of injuries suffered in the accident, the bicyclist, a female in her early twenties, was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Detectives – assigned to the Boston Police Department’s Accident Reconstruction Team – are currently investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding this accident. At present, the cause of the accident is still under investigation and no violations have been issued at this time. (via)

On Sunday afternoon at about 3:30, a 20-year-old woman was either riding her bicycle or walking beside it when she was struck by a truck, police said. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. There was a mangled bike found about a mile from the crash scene on Bay State Road. “It’s really a bad intersection, ” one resident said, describing the corner of Beacon Street and Charlesgate West, where the crash occurred. There is a bike lane on Beacon Street, but police said the woman was hit by a truck that did not stop. Investigators are trying to identify the driver of the truck involved in the incident. “People just don’t care anymore,” another resident said. “They are in such a hurry; they don’t care who they hit at all.” Police pulled over two trucks after the crash but they would not confirm whether either vehicle was involved in the incident. “It’s very scary; I live right next-door. I hope they honor the victim by making the road safer,” a resident said. As of Sunday night, police had not made any arrest or issued any violations.(via)

our hearts go out to her family and friends, more information when I get it. Of all the cyclist fatalities in the last two years, nearly all of them have been caused by large trucks. Perhaps its time the city does something about this.

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Globe Highlights Failure Of Justice In Wellesely Fatal Hit And Run

The globe had a front page article today about the lack of an indictment for Dana McCoomb, the truck driver who killed cyclist Alex Motsenigos last year.

It’s a common refrain among local ­cyclists: Want to kill someone and get away with it? Run them over while they’re on a bicycle.

Within Boston’s growing cycling community, a perceived lack of criminal prosecution of motorists involved in fatal bike crashes has been a regular source of outrage in recent years. That ire came to a ­fever pitch last week, when a grand jury investigation of a Wellesley bike crash with seemingly copious evidence — video footage, witnesses defending the deceased bicyclist, a truck driver who had fled the scene and had an extensive history of driving infractions — came back with no charges.

The grand jury’s decision, bicyclists contend, is evidence of a wider problem: Most people do not respect the rights of bike riders.

“The message that we got from this particular case,” said David Watson, executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, “is that, clearly, members of the general public still don’t care enough about bicyclists’ safety.”

(VIA)

As if to prove the entire point of the article, the comment section is a wasteland…depressing.

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MassBike Responds To Failure Of Grand Jury To Indict

VIA MassBike’s Website:

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Police Identify Man Killed In Allston

From The BPD Website:

The victim has been identified as 21 year old Chung-Wei Yang.

The facts and circumstances surrounding the accident are as follows:

On November 12, 2012 at 6:36pm officers from D-14 (Brighton) responded to a motor vehicle accident involving a bicyclist at Brighton Avenue and Harvard Avenues.

Upon arrival officers found a seriously injured male victim. EMS transported the 21 year old victim to Beth Israel Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

Update: Preliminary investigation suggests an MBTA bus did come in contact with the victim. There is no indication that the driver or any of the passengers on the bus knew anyone was struck. At this time, no charges have been filed

The Boston Police Department is continuing to investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident. Anyone with information is asked to call Homicide Detectives (617) 343-4470.

Community members wishing to assist this investigation anonymously can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1(800) 494-TIPS or texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463). The Boston Police Department will stringently guard and protect the identities of those who wish to remain anonymous.

I am going to wait until more information comes out before I pass judgement, but I am very suspicious. I can only hope that these incidents of cyclists being killed by large vehicles leads to some serious change in the way things are done in this town. The killing must stop.

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Woman Killed In South Boston Identified As Tanya Connolly

From the Herald:

A woman in her mid-30s riding a bicycle home yesterday with a friend was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer in South Boston, police said.

Tanya Connolly of South Boston immigrated from Ireland 14 years ago, friends and family said. She had lived and worked in the city ever since.

“She was full of life,” said her distraught brother, Carl Connolly, who spoke briefly after he walked out of the police station on West Broadway, where witnesses were being interviewed. “She was the glue that held her friends together. She’s definitely going to be missed”

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