Fatal Hit And Run In Wellesley

This is horrible, a man in his 40’s was killed today in Wellesley.

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More info here, and here.

It looks like he was riding a black carbon specialized, or at least that is what it looks like to me. If anyone has any information about this please leave it in the comments. There is also a helmet in some of the photos, but the wheels appear to have been moved over to the fence? For a bike to crack up this badly it must have been hit with a far amount of force. My best wishes go out to his family and friends. This is criminal, and whoever did this needs to be brought to justice.

More info when I get it.

EDIT: The comments hold a lot of updates, reprinted here:

Thanks for wandering woman on wheels for all the updates.

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Fatal Crash In Newton

Another young kid, another fatal crash, still don’t know what happened.

A bicyclist who was not wearing a helmet died after colliding with an SUV at the intersection of Commonwealth and Lowell Avenues in Newton at about 5:20 p.m. Monday, according to Newton Police Lieutenant Bruce Apotheker.

According to Muriel Mazzarini, who said she was driving the car behind the SUV, the cyclist was traveling east on Commonwealth Avenue when he hit the tail end of the car, which was crossing Commonwealth Avenue from Homer Street onto Lowell Avenue. The witness said she saw blood on the victim’s hand and chest.

“The light turned green and I saw the bike coming down and he smashed right into the car,” she said. “I stopped the car and I got out and went to help. Other people came around and we were all dialing 911.”

More from Wicked Local and pictures here

It is not clear if someone ran a red light or not. What is clear is that someone did something very wrong. My heart goes out to this young mans family. It rips me apart to have to hear about such young people dying in such a way.

More info when I get it.

EDIT: Some people are preparing a ghost bike…I hate having to publish this.

EDIT: Found this pdf of meeting notes from a pubic meeting last year that seems to indicate there have been previous fatal crashes on this stretch of Comm Ave in Newton. I can’t know for sure if this is the same location, but could there be something wrong with the way the road is designed here? An excerpt below.

John Allen, 7 University Park, Waltham, spoke on the item as a representative of the MassBike Technical Advisory Committee. He urged the city to pay careful attention to the bicycle lanes at intersections on Commonwealth Avenue. There was a fatal bicycle accident at an intersection on Commonwealth Avenue.

EDIT: Here is Andy Von Guerard’s (the cyclists) facebook page, and here is his fathers with a heart breaking message at the top. It is always so strange to see these sort of internet time capsules. A little slice of time captured forever in what is usually a mundane part of our day…

EDIT: Some more discussion on other blogs about this. here and here.

Both of these sites raise troubling questions about just how strange this accident seems. I tend to agree, it seems very odd.

The Boston Globe also has an article here.

Sources seem to indicate he ran a red light and smashed into a car…this is very tragic and preventable. Be careful people, follow the law, and wear a helmet!

Another update here.

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