Woman Cyclist Killed On Mass. Ave. In Hit And Run

Check in with your friends.  Does anyone know who this is.  This is horrible, and marks yet another instance of large trucks having fatal interactions with cyclists.

More images here

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A woman riding a bike was struck and killed by a truck in an apparent hit-and-run in the Back Bay Friday morning.

The cyclist was hit by the rear wheel of a flatbed truck as it turned off Massachusetts Avenue onto Beacon Street around 7 a.m.

The woman was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital where she died a short time later, according to police.

Her name has not been released, but investigators said she was in her 20’s. (via)

If you see a truck matching the following description let police know right away.

Police said it is possible the truck driver was not aware the cyclist had been hit.

They’re looking for a flatbed truck with a red sleeper cab and a damaged chrome grill.

A city traffic camera has video of crash, according to police, and authorities plan to release images of the truck soon.

No other information is available at this point in the investigation.

Does anyone know who owns this bike?

More info from the globe:

She was struck by a tractor-trailer unit pulling a flatbed trailer loaded with steel, said Boston Police Superintendent Bernard O’Rourke. Police were called to the scene at 7:05 a.m.

He described the tractor-trailer as having a red sleeper cab with chrome air horns on top of it, and some damage to the grill. He said the truck driver may not have seen the bicyclist, but stressed the investigation is just starting.

He said surveillance cameras in the neighborhood captured the incident and some of that footage may be released to the public later Friday.

“It’s a very, very tragic situation,’’ O’Rouke said.

The search for the vehicle is underway. “We are checking everything we can. We are looking at every single surveillance camera we can check,” he said. “We’re doing whatever we can to find the truck.”

Zach Cloyd, 31, who lives next door to the scene, said he stopped biking home from work because this particular intersection is dangerous.

“That exact corner, waiting at that corner, I’ve had someone almost hit me as they were turning right,” he said.

In the aftermath of the crash, there was a bike with a crushed handlebar laying at the intersection and nearby a helmet laying next to the bike.(via)

EDIT:

This is the truck they are looking for:

(via)

EDIT:

See a periscope of the officer at the scene talking about the crash.

EDIT:

UHub reports this is a very dangerous intersection, which we figured out in 2013.  Lets hope we do something with that data now. (via)

The Back Bay intersection where a bicyclist was hit and killed this morning was identified in a city report two years ago as the most dangerous in the city for bicyclists.

A 2013 report on bicycle safety commissioned by then Mayor Menino found the intersection of Beacon Street and Massachusetts Avenue had more bicycle crashes than any other – and noted it was just two blocks away from the second riskiest intersection for bicyclists:

We found that nearly 60% of all bicycle collisions occurred at street intersections. Of the 7 locations with 5 or more geographically identical collision locations, the top two intersections with the highest number of crashes were in the Back Bay/Beacon Hill neighborhood, with 14 collisions at Beacon St and Massachusetts Ave and 12 collisions at Massachusetts Avenue and Commonwealth Ave (Westbound).

H/t Penny Cherubino.

EDIT:

BPS has released more pictures of the truck.

They have also said that the woman was in her early 30’s not her 20’s.

EDIT:

They found the driver and the truck.  No charges filed yet.

7News Boston WHDH-TV

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8 Year Old Child Killed While Riding Bicycle

Yadielys Deleon Camacho, 8, was killed after she was struck by a car.

Two young cousins were struck by a car Saturday night during a birthday celebration for their grandmother in Mattapan, leaving an 8-year-old girl dead, a 12-year-old boy injured, and a close-knit family heartbroken.

Yadielys Deleon Camacho, described as a “sweetheart,” was a second-grader at Up Academy in Dorchester, according to her family.

At the time of the crash, witnesses said, she was riding her bicycle with Joseph Eduardo Cordova, her cousin, near the 100 block of West Selden Street.

A mangled bicycle was found at the scene, according to police.

Police arrested the alleged driver of the vehicle, James Horton, 45, of Dorchester, and charged him with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident and motor vehicle homicide, said Officer Rachel McGuire, a Boston police spokeswoman. (via)

This is the second young person in as many weeks that has been killed by a hit and run driver.  In the 70’s in northern Europe the killing of children by cars sparked a movement that fundamentally changed the way people used automobiles.  Called the “stop murdering children” campaign, it changed forever the way the Dutch thought about how streets should be designed, and how cars should be part of society.  We must do the same.

There is no acceptable level of human death in service to automobile traffic.  We can not accept one single fatality because people want to drive cars around.  The death of this lovely young girl is a tragedy that no one should have to abide.  My deepest sympathies go out to her family.

Residents of West Selden Street say they have frequently complained about the speed of traffic on their two-way street.

Millien refuses to let his two children ride their bikes on the street. He said he limits them to riding in the backyard.

“People don’t slow down,” he said, calling for the city to install a speed bump. “There’s always a big accident.”

Millien, who has lived on the street for 13 years, said the tragedy may be the final straw for him and his family, as the frequency of car accidents has made him ready to move.

“There’s no problem with the neighbors or crime; the problem is speeding,” he said. (via)

It’s time we change our entire concept of how we allow cars into our society.  No more deaths.

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This Is A Tragedy, Not Only Because Of What Happened, But Because It Could Have Been Prevented

This little girl is at her parents funeral, both of whom were killed when they were struck by a truck in Texas while riding a tandem. I look at this picture and frankly it brings me to tears, the row of cyclists like an honor guard and that tiny little bike pin on her dress makes me cry even as I write this. You can read the details on this story here.

As hard as it is to take a step back from such a visceral shock to our emotions as a situation like is I am going to try. This poor little girl is going to spend the rest of her life without a mother or father because of a crash that most likely could have been avoided. In popular language we call them Car accidents, or bike accidents, but in reality almost all crashes are avoidable. Either through better infrastructure, better upkeep of vehicles, better behavior, avoiding drunk driving, better choices etc. There is very little reason that we should ever have to read about people like that little girl.

If you drive a car, or know someone who drives a car you need to take a good hard look at that little girl. She is all alone, and will never grow up with the love of a mother or father, because a truck struck and killed both her parents. The driver of which is not being charged because the police claim he “lost control” of his truck. Which personally I don’t understand. I mean if you lose control of your vehicle and kill two other people isn’t it your fault no matter why you lost control? On top of that if the road had been designed for safer bicycle use it would have been harder for the truck to have struck the couple. If education would have been better drivers would have been more careful around cyclists. If this driver had been charged with vehicular homicide it would have sent a message to other drivers. If laws had been better the speed limit might have been lowered in this area… The list goes on and on, there are so many things that could have been done to make this situation come out different, I find it shocking that it be called an accident.

If you drive a car, and you find yourself honking at cyclists, driving close to them on purpose, harassing them, or even failing to pay attention while talking on your phone or making turns, you could be the cause of another picture like the one above. If you ride a bicycle and you run red lights, take unnecessary risks, and behave in an aggressive way you might also be to blame. But what both groups need to understand on a very deep level, is that most of these behaviors are driven by the absolutely inane desire to “get where you are going faster.”

Cars honk at cyclists, and endanger them so they can get to the next red light several seconds faster. Bikers run through intersections and blow past stop signs endangering themselves and pedestrians simply to get to the next stop several seconds faster. None of which makes any damn sense. Drivers honk at cyclists for “slowing them down” and cyclists hate this. Cyclists run red lights and drivers hate this. But the thing is all these behaviors are driven by the desire to go faster. The result of which is little girls with no parents.

And that is where I stop being even handed and start addressing only motorists. I am talking to the Monique Spencer’s of the world here. Several studies and a lot of personal experience has led me to conclude the vast majority or crashes are being caused by motorists failing to yield to cyclists when turning, opening doors into their path, and striking them when pulling out of driveways and side streets. You might get up in arms about the red light running, and the rest, but all the data seems to point to a very clear thing. Motorists kill cyclists because they fail to be safe around them.

It is going to be hard for motorists to accept this because they react in a visceral and illogical way to cyclists running red lights (yet another reason for cyclists to stop doing it), but the vast majority (in some studies as much as 90%) of crashes are caused by motorists. I have the following simple list of things that you can do as a motorist to make cyclists safer, and to save yourself the tragic consequences of killing someone.

• Before you make a right hand turn do your best to look behind and to the side of your vehicle to make sure no cyclists are there.
• When making a left turn remember that you have to YIELD to oncoming traffic, including but not limited to cyclists.
• Do not pass a cyclist then quickly turn in front of them.
• Before pulling out of a driveway or side street scan the sidewalk and the side of the road for cyclists IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. I know it is wrong but some Cyclists ride the wrong way down the street, and don’t always ride in the center of the lane where you might be looking.
• Before opening your door look behind you.
• The next time you are tempted to honk or harass a cyclist remember that they are a human being, and that even if they appear to be doing something wrong, killing them, or harming them will not help you go faster, or help them change behavior.
• SLOW DOWN. Speed is not a value, being late is not as bad as being a murderer, being slowed is not as bad as hurting someone, and being delayed for a couple of seconds is not as bad as being an asshole.

If all else fails take another look at that little girl, look into her eyes, and remember that everyone is someones mother or father or brother or sister or son or daughter…

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