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Bicyclist knocked unconscious in collision with car in Jackson Square
By adamg on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 7:19am
Boston Police report a bicyclist is expected to survive a midnight crash at Centre and Lamartine streets:
Officers spoke to the motorist who stated that he never saw the man on the bike. According to the motorist, he was attempting to make a turn onto Lamartine when he felt and heard something strike the passenger side of his car. Officers observed and did take note of damage to the motorist’s passenger side door and window. After being struck, the motorist states that he stopped his car and pulled over to see what had happened. Upon exiting his car, the motorist stated that he observed an individual lying on the ground unconscious with a bicycle lying in close proximity.
Ed. note: Chanel 7, which had the first report up on the incident, said the bicyclist had died.
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Comments
That's a hideously dangerous intersection
The southwest corridor "bike path" requires going along the sidewalk and making a hard turn for the crosswalk onto the busiest street in JP, which is right after a sharp hill which means drivers have about 30-40 feet to stop. You're also going against right-on-red turners from Lamartine. Whoever designed that intersection needs to be shot; the path for bikers should be at the TOP of the hump, along with a crosswalk for people leaving the station.
Further, to get a crossing signal from the Bromley-Heath side, you have to come within inches of the road to press the button, instead of it being set back from the road where cyclists can push it...
A death: Will the Mayor and the DCR finally act?
The southwest corridor is a principal bicycle commuting route into the city. And, now someone has died on it.
The MDC, the DCR, the Commonwealth, the MBTA, and the city have done absolutely nothing to make this bicycle route safe.
Each and street that crosses the corridor is a potential death trap for bicyclists. Whether it is Centre Street, Cedar Street, Tremont Street, Prentiss Street, Ruggles Street, Massachusetts Avenue, or West Newton Street, there is no traffic design that takes bicyclists into account.
As soon as a bicyclist exits the bicycle path and enters the sidewalk pavement at a cross street, the traffic design treats the bicyclist as if she were a pedestrian.
If Mayor Menino actually cared about bicycles as a valid form of transportation, and not as a Saturday morning la-de-dah for Hizzoner, then he'd be down at Centre and Lamartine, today, with his traffic commissioner looking for ways, today, to fix that death trap.
um, a lot of people have died on the SWC
"The southwest corridor is a principal bicycle commuting route into the city. And, now someone has died on it."
Newsflash: LOTS of people have died on the Southwest Corridor Park. Last year a kid was shot to death on the basketball courts right before a major event (I think Wake the Earth?)
Such a big deal that Davis got out and walked down Centre Street to assure people SWC was safe (http://wbztv.com/local/boylston.street.shooting.2....) ....except, guess what? Boston Police don't patrol it. State Police do. Where were they? Their definition of "patrol" is to park a pair of cruisers near Northeastern in a tucked-out-of-way parking lot and chat (I see them all the time when I'm riding the orange line) or occasionally drive up and down it in a cruiser (annoying, forces anyone going either direction off the path) or on a motorcycle (slightly less annoying.)
I seem to recall people have been attacked/shot right behind BPD headquarters...
couldn't wait to go after the city, could ya?
Do you care about the person who died or about scoring points?
No death, police say
I've updated my post with the latest info from BPD, which says that while the bicyclist sustained life-threatening injuries, he is expected to survive (Channel 7 originally had him dead) - and that he apparently drove into the car, rather than the other way around.
Biking to conclusions?
Do we know that the cyclist was someone using the bike path and crossing Centre legally?
Not saying he necessarily wasn't, but just that I'm in Jackson Square very frequently, and I often see a number of skilled law-abiding cyclists who appear to be riding from point A to point B, and I also often nearly hit a number of people loitering on bikes riding in figure eights all over both lanes of Centre Street with no regard for the traffic lights (usually helmetless and frequently on tiny bikes that are hard to see). Both types of bicycle use seem to be popular in the area, so we don't know unless we get more info.
Regardless, I wish him best wishes for a speedy recovery and everything he needs to get his life back on track.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Cyclist not dead
He;s not dead. Honest.......
They are wrong. UH is wrong.......
Two stories?
Man on bike hit by car in Jamaica Plain
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO120542/
OR
Person on bike struck and killed
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO120510/
I hope the first article is true...
EXPECTED TO SURVIVE
http://www.bpdnews.com/2009/08/daily_incidents_for...
BICYCLIST STRUCK BY CAR IN JAMAICA PLAIN EXPECTED TO SURVIVE
At about 12:01am, on Saturday, August 1, 2009, officers from Area E-13 (Jamaica Plain) responded to a radio call for a motor vehicle accident involving a man on a bicycle in the area of Centre and Lamartine Streets. On arrival, officers located a 21 year-old black male lying on the ground, being treated by EMS. The victim was transported to the Beth Israel Hospital with life threatening injuries. Officers spoke to the motorist who stated that he never saw the man on the bike. According to the motorist, he was attempting to make a turn onto Lamartine when he felt and heard something strike the passenger side of his car. Officers observed and did take note of damage to the motorist’s passenger side door and window. After being struck, the motorist states that he stopped his car and pulled over to see what had happened. Upon exiting his car, the motorist stated that he observed an individual lying on the ground unconscious with a bicycle lying in close proximity.
i live around there
I'm not surprised by this at all. The folks drive like _CRAZY_ people from Columbus to the rotary. Seriously, it's like a bunch of drunk 16 year olds who just got their learner's permit.
Well, at least the driver stopped.
Not everyone does.
Not Dead Yet!
There's life, and apparently plenty of hope, as of 5:15 this afternoon:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/200...
Globe says bicyclist is alive
Two anons aren't making much sense
Seven anons on this thread with at least two of them not making much sense.
To the anon who posted this whopper at 2:27pm, um, a lot of people have died on the SWC: The context is a "principal bicycle commuting route" on which a bicyclist was reported to have collided with a car. Please take your shootings to another thread, or at least relate your interesting observations about the State Police's failure to patrol to vehicular and bicyclist traffic safety.
To the anon posting couldn't wait to go after the city, could ya? at 2:30pm: the traffic design for bicyclists on the southwest corridor sucks foetid pond water; I went to the trouble of detailing some of what lead up to the accident; and, yes, I care enough about the injured party to point out what could be done to prevent it from happening to another poor unfortunate.
As far davedavedavedave's comments about the Columbus-to-the-rotary segment of Centre Street being full of "_CRAZY_ people," this past Wednesday there was a Boston police officer issuing tickets to outbound vehicles near the Stop & Shop for not observing lane discipline at Lamartine. He was pulling them over one after the other. Fool drivers and bad traffic design.
Livejournal called
They want you.
expected to survive a
Department of Redundency Department? ;-)
I suspect that an accident at midnight is not likely to be caused by poor bicycle path design.
If it happened at midnight
the first question I'd ask is: did the bicyclist have lights? Preferably both head- and tail.
Preferably? No, It's Required
Both head and tail lights are required on bicycles starting at 30 minutes past sunset, if I remember my Mass state law correctly. Required, not preferably.
Law doesn't require a tail light
just a rear reflector -- but I'd recommend taking off that reflector and replacing it with a real tail light.
Phase 1A of Jackson Square has crossing improvements
The Jamaica Plain Gazette of 24 July 2009 contains a page-two story that says the Phase 1A development of Jackson Square, scheduled for completion in 2010, has "improvements to pedestrian and bicycle crossings on Centre Street and Lamartine Street."
It'll be interesting to see if these "improvements" are adequate to the bicycle traffic or merely more of the same treat-'em-like-pedestrians design of the rest of the corridor.
Was the car making a right
Was the car making a right turn?
Then he is at fault.
Alternate question: Was the bicyclist attempting to pass the
car making the right turn by going between the car and the curb?
Given that the bicyclist hit the car on the passenger side, which means the car would have to been well into their turn for that impact to happen, this seems to be the likely scenario. If so, it sounds to me like the bicyclist is at fault, and not the driver.
Sounds like a left turn to me
Based on where the appropriate crosswalk is for the SWC and where Lamartine is, it sounds like the driver was JP-bound on Centre and making a left onto Lamartine, with his car over the crosswalk. If the light was green, there would be nothing wrong with this.
The story says the cyclist hit the passenger side of the car dead on. If the driver had been Roxbury-bound on Centre and making a right onto Lamartine, he wouldn't have been able to hit someone bicycling on the SWC. The cyclist would have had to hit him crossing parallel to Centre.
Is that called a right hook?
Is that called a right hook, with the automobile driver possibly still at fault?
From MassBike's write-up of the Bike Bill:
6. Don't "Right-Hook" Bicyclists : A "right-hook" is when a motorist makes an abrupt right turn too close to a bicyclist, causing the cyclist to crash or make an emergency maneuver to avoid crashing. Motorists are now prohibited from making abrupt right turns at intersections and driveways after passing a cyclist.