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Driver hits woman with car in Downtown Crossing, then collides with armored car
By adamg on Wed, 10/14/2015 - 4:44pm
Around 4:20 p.m. at Washington and Milk streets. The victim was taken away in bad shape. Craig Caplan, who took the photo, reports the woman was removed from underneath the gold car.
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Comments
Drivers consistently fly
Drivers consistently fly through that intersection from Milk onto Washington even though pedestrians have the walk signal to cross Washington. Drivers treating the light like a green arrow and the thousands of pedestrians around the area equal someone getting hit. Although based on the picture it looks like the driver took an illegal turn down the wrong way of Washington. The Millennium Tower construction diverting cars to Milk Street has only made it worse.That block by the Old South Meeting House would be so much better if it were pedestrian only.
And then there are the cars that treat the sidewalk and bike lane on Milk Street like their personal driveways...
It really is insane down there
I have not used the bike lanes on Milk St, despite going through here for several years worth of work commutes. It is always filled with double parked cars but the bigger issue are the cars that do not even attempt to follow the stop signs at Arch and Hawley St. Even if they stop, they never look up the road for oncoming traffic and often drive in the OPPOSITE lane due to the road being blocked by double parked cars.
Cases in point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itKR0ASoHbQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnbZaJul6M0
I've actually modified my route (mainly due to the Millenium backup at Washington) to come down Hawley St. now instead and I'm able to avoid getting cleaned out at least there. Arch St. is still an issue though.
Opened a few cases with Citizens Connect for this very stretch of road but like most cases dealing with cars, it was ignored.
second link is private, FYI
n/t
Bad link
The 2nd link is market private.
But thanks for posting these.
Updated!
Thanks for letting me know!
yup.
and people wonder why some of us don't ride in the bike lanes... This is why.
Green Arrow
They do have a green arrow for the right turn. The signal makes no sense.
Typical Boston traffic engineering BS
Green arrow and Walk light. Truly awful.
Not so sure the driver had the green arrow, even
It looks to me like the driver blasted through a red when trying to take an illegal left, given the orientation of the car and her having hit the truck.
Although dumb signal
Although dumb signal configurations drivers are to yield to pedestrians on turns if given the walk sign or at a crosswalk without signals. I was crossing state and congress and had the walk sign to cross and this lady was tooting her horn and yelling at me(I responded in sign language). I swear getting a drivers license should be way more difficult.
But that would mean paying attention
One should be able to race through a congested area filled with people on foot and designed for horse carts and pedestrians without having to think, pay attention to walk lights, or stop looking at the dumbphone, right?
Because that's how people drive in that area.
Yielding to pedestrians who
Yielding to pedestrians who have the walk sign? That's a good one.
green arrows are horrible in general
they should only be used where there are absolutely no pedestrians around. On city streets they just make things dangerous - especially a place like downtown crossing where there are thousands of people out walking.
Nope.
No they don't. Drivers have a green ball. Unless it's changed since June of this year.
Green whatever
That's a distinction without a difference, since the only legal way a car can go there is to turn right.
I don't think all intersections should have pedestrian-only traffic light phases, but that intersection certainly should.
But note the prominent signs
displayed in this and many, many other intersections around the city that say:
YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS ON TURNS
For some reason, most drivers find this rule to be optional. And the police show zero interest in actually enforcing it.
For some reason, most drivers
Hmm... I can't possibly imagine what that reason might be.
Oh, right. There it is.
Not the least bit shocking.
It's basically a free-for-all. Peds walking out in front of cars against the lights, cars failing to yield to peds in the crosswalk. Poorly timed pedestrian signals that everyone ignores.
Your usual Mass-hole cluster situation.
You see
Car driver screws up = Pedestrian Hurt, driver fine.
Pedestrian screws up = Pedestrian Hurt, driver fine.
This is why people need to be held to a higher standard when driving a car -- they risk hurting someone yet they face little risk themselves.
It's annoying when people walk where they should not but as a car driver you still need to accept some responsibility for not being alert, going a responsible speed, and failing to slam on the brakes even if the pedestrian was wrong.
I feel horrible for the woman. I hope she pulls through.
Sure.
Which is why you shouldn't step out in front of cars against the light.
Which is why the city should time pedestrian lights to reflect reality.
Which is why intersections like this one should force drivers to slow down before turning.
Which is why there should be SOME enforcement of double parking.
Which is why there should be SOME enforcement of pedestrian-right-of way.
But instead we have a free-for-all.
But in this case, the person appears to turn the wrong way onto Washington. I don't think that happens very frequently.
As relates to the case under discussion...
In other words, the driver was egregiously at fault. So why are you bellyaching about pedestrians doing the wrong thing? You a MarKKK sockpuppet?
Caveat Viator / Caveat Actor
If a pedestrian is at the most risk, how do you reach the conclusion that its everyone else's responsibility to watch for them?
Is that how you invest money? Make purchase decisions? Make life choices?
Its everyone else's responsibility but your's? Where is the logic?
How about you just cram it?
Seriously. You spend no time in this area. You have no idea what the conditions are.
You are completely ignoring the fact that someone was seriously injured by a driver who did something stupid (which those of us who work in the area can plainly see - probably due to running the light off of Milk to take an illegal left) AND the FACT that the area WAS NOT EVER MEANT TO HAVE CARS IN IT!
Go drive up and down Route 2 or something. Just pull you head out of your ass so you can see things that aren't lit up and flashing.
Swirly, you da real MVP
I owe ya a beer for such a brilliant remark, Swirly. Markk, I walked by the horrific scene and nothing compares to what I saw. People should put their boorish politics aside. Poor woman was injured :(
Sorry to hear that
I do hope the woman is okay.
Sure I feel badly for the pedestrian
not that it does her any good. I was just responding to the crazy attitude that its always the driver's fault which is a cousin of "its always the man's fault."
What?
"always the driver's fault"? Not even going to touch the misogyny of the second part (let me guess, she was asking for it, right?), but really? Pretty much everyone -prosecutors, juries, media, public- will jump through hoops to absolve drivers of any wrongdoing. Maybe NYC is more up your alley if you think drivers shouldn't be held responsible for their actions?
"Of nine fatal crashes reported last month ...no motorists were known to have been charged for causing a death. Two drivers were unlicensed; three fled the scene and were not immediately caught or identified. Historically, nearly half of motorists who kill a New York City pedestrian or cyclist do not receive so much as a citation for careless driving." [http://www.streetsblog.org/2014/01/31/nypd-16059-pedestrians-and-cyclist...
keep diggin'
.
See, here's the thing
I drive (very) occasionally. And I let people walk when they're walking in front of me. Even though I could legally run them over, drive home, have dinner, and then wait to offer my ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ defense if and when the police ever show up. Because I'm not a goddamn psychopath.
You forgot to mention
That she obviously wasn't wearing bright enough clothing.
Not a factor here
I might have if it were at night and there was poor street lighting. Headlights are only pointed directly ahead, so work less well to prevent encountering people in the road when turning, making reflective/bright clothing all the more vital in those situations.
it doesn't have to be like this, though
this is the problem in this city - we've all accepted horrible street and intersection design as somehow "just the way things are" - but it really doesn't have to be this way - and there are many many examples out in the world of just how to make things safer for everyone. A lot of things are finally happening, there have been some major changes in the design standards that are finally coming down from the fed and state levels - the city just adopted complete streets a couple weeks ago... we should hopefully start seeing improvements in the next 5-10 years... but we're still light-years behind the dutch standards (which is what NACTO, the recently adopted official state roadway design standard, is somewhat based on - but not quite as advanced).
truly a case of bad and antiquated intersection design - designed for car flow - in a place with extremely high levels of pedestrian traffic. This is a place where pedestrians should have priority - not cars - when you give cars priority in cities is when people get hurt.
People don't pollute when waiting
While nearly all motor vehicles generate unnecessary greenhouse gas while waiting for those you want to give priority. Your way worsens climate change. It also goes against what everyone hopefully learned in nursery school - play fair, take turns, and share equally. In a democracy, its one person one vote, so weight priority based on numbers of individuals no matter the travel mode. That's the most fair.
You would certainly support this when it comes to public transit vehicles - 10 people on a bus or 20 on a tram ought to take priority over 1 pedestrian or cyclist, or 6 cars. Right?
Birth place of Benjamin Franklin
There should only be delivery vehicles here, and only at very restricted hours.
Some one needs to take a long drive of a short pier.
The entirety of downtown
The entirety of downtown Boston is like a mild wide. Unless you are a delivery truck delivering goods to a business on that street, or have a handicap placard, there's no REAL reason anyone needs to be driving on that street. The city should declare more parts of downtown to be car-free and then build some nice big tall garages on the outskirts (since obviously it's too much to expect suburbanites to suffer on transit the way people who actually live in the city do).
Not allowing cars on
Not allowing cars on Washington Street, an area designed hundreds of years before cars and filled with thousands of workers and tourists on a daily basis, would reduce greenhouse gases and no more people would be run over by unlawful drivers. Pedestrians greatly outnumber vehicles in this area and should get priority at the very least.
I can almost guarantee this
I can almost guarantee this is another case of someone panicking, and flooring the accelerator wandering why the car isn't stopping as they plow threw people and into cars. This. Happens. All. The. Time.
I witnessed this accident and
I witnessed this accident and that is exactly what happened. The driver was an elderly man with hearing aids who appeared to be slowing down as the light turned yellow, but suddenly revved up and flew STRAIGHT through the light, instead of turning right, and in the direction of a Brinks truck which was parked on the opposite side of Washington Street. But he hit that woman first and she flew over the hood and roof of the car and landed underneath the car. People kept claiming that she was pinned, but I don't see how that would have been possible.
Thanks for ending the stupid speculation
about drivers intentionally running red lights, going the wrong way etc. The simple and more common case of an elderly man panicking explains what happened.
In front of Roche Brothers
There are trucks regularly rumbling through the pedestrian mall in front of Primark and Roche Brothers. That is a catastrophe waiting to happen.