Nikolas Papadopoulos, 18, will be charged with a slew of violations for a Sept. 6 crash that sent six people to the hospital - one of them a 14-year-old who suffered "life altering" brain and spine injuries after being ejected from Papadopoulos's SUV and another the other driver, who remains in a medically induced coma, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office and State Police say.
Papadopoulos will be charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle, which carries potential jail time, as well as civil offenses of speeding, failing to ensure that two passengers under 16 were wearing seat belts and unsafely crossing the road's lane markings.
Officials say Papadopoulos was not driving impaired, just stupidly, around 2 p.m. that day. In a statement, DA Dan Conley said:
At this stage in the investigation, we believe the defendant's excessive speed was the primary factor. This was an avoidable tragedy. It didn’t have to happen.
That evidence suggests:
Papadopoulos was travelling westbound on the state roadway at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour when the 2003 Mazda Tribute he was operating jumped the median strip near St. Joseph Street, began to roll, and collided with a 2004 Ford F-150 pick-up truck heading eastbound.
Also:
At the time of the crash, Papadopoulos had three passengers: one 14-year-old from Chestnut Hill, another 14-year-old from West Roxbury, and a 15-year-old also from West Roxbury. While all four are currently expected to survive, the 14-year-old from Chestnut Hill sustained life-altering injuries to the brain and spine after being ejected from the vehicle. Neither he nor the other 14-year-old was wearing his seat belt.
The operator of the Ford, a 33-year-old Dorchester man, was also critically injured and remains in a medically-induced coma at Brigham and Women's Hospital. His passenger, age 34 and a resident of Quincy, has been released from care with less serious injuries. Both men in the Ford were wearing seat belts.
Papadopoulos remains hospitalized at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He will be summonsed to West Roxbury District Court for arraignment on a future date.
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Comments
This is the key. Drivers will
By greenlinetobrooklyn
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 1:14pm
This is the key. Drivers will drive at a speed that is comfortable to them on the roadway. Many times this means higher than the speed limit, or what others will perceive as unsafe.
Use the built environment around the road to make drivers perceive their comfortable speed as the speed traffic engineers deem appropriate (75th percentile), and drivers will slow down.
More speedbumps
By anon
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 2:06pm
Fewer cops.
"Traffic engineers"?
By fenwayguy
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 4:54pm
This is MDC/DCR we're talkng about -- compliance with modern highway analysis and design standards isn't exactly their strong suit. The 50-to-100 year-old parkway infrastructure they've inherited is also a major challenge, no doubt.
Driving at a speed that's comfortable for them?
By anon
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 10:53am
The problem is that if enough people decide to exceed the speed limit, there's the potential for complete and total anarchy on the roads, which there's enough of already.
Nope, that wouldn't have done it
By Not Logged In f...
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 2:50pm
For all of the talk about enforcing speed limits or installing traffic calming infrastructure, what is missing is the fact that a senseless 18 year old whose frontal lobe hasn't developed enough to understand that he is driving an actual car and not playing Grand Theft Auto was driving a car 80mph on the J-way in a 40mph zone. This wan't about just speeding a little bit because no one enforces the speed limit, or not being cognizant of traffic calming measures (the road itself is obviously not appropriate or sustainable for driving 80mph or even 60pmh). I suppose you could raise the driver's license age to 35 but that seems a bit unrealistic. Sadly, no matter what you do, there seems to be nothing you can do to stop something as stupid and senseles as this (except as I said above remove a person as the driver).
Yup
By Sock_Puppet
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 3:51pm
This is why you don't let your kid get his license as soon as he can.
You live in a city. Buy him a T pass for his 16th birthday.
And ground him if he gets in a car with other teenagers.
Very tragic and preventable
By anon
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 4:39pm
Very tragic and preventable story.
My kids are city residents with their own T passes since age 12. They grew up in a one-car family. I was willing and able to pick them up and drive them wherever the T didn't reach. I stalled on them getting driver's licenses and then, when they could at ages 18-21 without my permission,I begged them to never drive on the Jway or Aborway. So far, so good.
Doing the right thing
By Sock_Puppet
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 6:58pm
Though if their plate number is 158 NM3 on a black Mercedes, they passed me going about 70 on the VFW today, so you might want to take their keys away.
Horrific incidents like this make me realize how little I missed
By anon
Fri, 09/20/2013 - 2:43am
Horrific incidents like this make me realize how little I missed when I was a high school kid. At least I managed to survive and to grow up intact and in one piece.
That's nice
By anon
Fri, 09/20/2013 - 8:59am
Miki.
:=)
By mplo
Sat, 09/28/2013 - 4:54am
Thank you!
Raise the driving age
By uhdave
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 9:52pm
Raise the driving age to 21.
Raise the driving age to 21?
By anon
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 10:00am
Naahh! Probably raising the driving age to 18 (the way it is in most, if not all of the European countries.) is a good idea. What I think is ironic is the fact that here in the United States, a 16 year old kid is considered old enough to handle what is a lethal weapon that maims/kills untold numbers of people each year due to being carelessly handled.
Okay, why?
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 10:34am
Because it worked so very well with the drinking age?
Have you ever spent time outside of cities - even 18 wouldn't work.
How do you propose that a high school graduate get to work in an outside-the-city area, then? Not everybody spends their late teen years on a college campus or living at home.
I grew up in a suburb west of Boston,
By anon
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 10:48am
where getting a driver's license, especially by the age of 16.5, was considered a rite of passage. The list of casualties among my classmates who did get their licenses at that age was rather rampant, if one gets the drift.
I also might add that I ended up getting my license at around Christmastime of my Senior year of high school (I was not quite 18), later than most of my classmates, and, the more I think about it, the more I'm glad that I waited to get my license. Unlike most of my classmates, I didn't feel ready to drive and get a license at the age of 16.5, if one gets the drift.
Also, since you mentioned the subject of lowering the drinking age to 18; it was found that the incidence of drinking among high school kids had increased.
Usually a state wide decision
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 11:23am
I'll say this up front: my nearly 18-year old doesn't drive, and my nearly 16 year old has no plans to do so in the near future. However, we live in an area where giving them rides isn't an issue, where they use the transit system extensively, and where they can bike to just about anywhere they want to be.
If we lived in Western MA, they would need to have their licenses because there is no public transit and some regionalized school systems don't even run buses for the high school age kids! In other words, they would need to drive to school or be driven.
When I was growing up. My parents INSISTED that I get my license at 16 - and not just because I was graduating at 17. It was because they needed another driver available, and needed me to be able to get around when my mother went through some health issues that made it hard for her to drive me. We lived in an exurban area, with one bus that ran every two hours and not on weekends.
The way that most of the US and much of MA are set up, not driving means not being able to have a job, and having to be driven to school and everywhere. We cannot consider a raise in the driving age to 18 until and unless we have the sort of intensive public transit networks we see in Europe, where 18 is a workable driving age (and you can buy beer and wine at 16 in most places).
Besides, what IS the problem with high school age kids having a beer now and then? The problem is that in the US drinking happens in hidden areas in binge patterns due to the illegality of it, with less controlled circumstances and dire consequences - instead of in public with friends and food and a lot more social control.
Underaged drinking in a controlled family situation is one thing
By mplo
Sat, 09/28/2013 - 5:01am
and it occurs in some European countries such as France, but, all too often, when underaged kids just drink with their friends, as opposed to drinking with their families in a controlled family situation, things often get out of control quite rapidly, as teens often behave very differently when they're out and around with friends than they do when they're with their families.
I also might add that teens are even more susceptible to permanent cognitive damage as a consequence of excessive drinking of alcohol, due to the fact that their brains, as well as their bodies, are still developing and not completely matured.
Make the drinking age 16,
By anon
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 3:25pm
Make the drinking age 16, driving 18, and voting/ownership of firearms (now that we no longer have the draft) 21.
Just because the speeder in question was only 18,
By mplo
Sat, 09/28/2013 - 10:09am
that doesn't let him off the hook or excuse his being a total jackass, especially since his irresponsible behavior resulted in the ruination of at least one or two lives, both of who were juveniles (under 18, yet!). The speeder in question's over 18, and he should therefore be tried for and charged as an adult with hims crimes.
Ugh
By H
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 12:08pm
Stories like this just reinforce the feeling that there's only so much you can do as a good defensive driver to avoid serious accidents. On a road like the Riverway/Jamaicaway/Arborway, there is no opportunity to get out of the way of some jackass who loses control of his car because he's driving recklessly. [ETA: and this was in one of the few areas of that road that has a substantial median between cars traveling in opposite directions.] I'm glad the driver was over 18 so he can be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
Agreed
By fairlee76
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 8:26pm
You can't legislate/police against stupid. Also, anyone else a little weirded out by the fact that an 18 year old was chauffeuring around 14/15 year olds? Seems odd to me. Of course, I am using my memories of the kids in my HS that used to run with a younger crowd.
I wondered about this but the
By anon
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 11:01pm
I wondered about this but the second eldest passenger was also a varsity hockey player with him and the 14 year olds were both on the JV per the coach who was interviewed, I'm assuming that is the link between the 4.
I also have to agree with the people who drive this roadway daily, if you went 25 you'd get run over. I can't imagine how a police officer could even pull into these roadways in traffic without being hit himself, even if he did find someone going at an excessive speed. There must be another solution other than that one.
May all six involved continue in their recovery it was terribly avoidable....
Can't legislate/police against stupid, eh?
By anon
Fri, 09/20/2013 - 2:31am
There's something rather abnormal about the fact that a guy who's legally an adult was chauffeuring around kids who were much younger than himself, who were not adults yet, and not only put those who were still young children in danger but, in fact, more than likely was responsible for the destruction of at least 2 other lives. Pathetic indeed. Yes, they should legislate and police against stupid, to protect others by taking perpetrators of this kind of s**t off of the roads for awhile.
Dangerous Road
By Lisa
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 2:55pm
I have always thought of that stretch of road as dangerous to many curves, so I avoid it as much as possible I can't image how you cold travel at 80mph in the middle of the day anyway. geshhhhh what an idiot this kid is.
Speeding is everywhere
By anon
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 4:12pm
Speeding's everywhere. There was no way to prevent this the kid was going to be going 80 if he was by himself and the poor b$stards in the other car were going to to get hit. Anyone ever stand at the crosswalks going to the North End or Aquarium? The cars are flying by on Atlantic Ave.
As far as the cops go pulling people over. Here's one for ya. I'm in the slow lane on 128 N in Wakefield a Statie gets behind me and lights me up as I am taking the off ramp (blinker on). So I continue down the off ramp onto Salem St and pull into a condo complex because it was 8 am and the only place to go without completely screwing up traffic. First thing the jerk says is " why didn't you stop. I was going to tbone you". Really? Watch a little too much Worlds most dangerous police chases. By the way the reason I was pulled over was that I forgot to put the reg sticker on my plate. It was sitting on the table at my house cause I renewed early. I understand my fault but he couldn't tell that it was renewed when he ran my plate.
How do you do 80MPH on the
By anon
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 4:28pm
How do you do 80MPH on the Arborway? I guess not well, thus we have this accident.
How do you do 80 MPH on that
By anon
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 5:47pm
How do you do 80 MPH on that section heading westbound, after just driving over the bridge that is now one long speed bump due to its deteriorating condition?
seat belt
By anon
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 4:59pm
All these comments about speeding, but nothing pointing out the fact that the passengers weren't wearing seatbelts?
18 year olds driving
By anon
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 9:13pm
18 year olds driving recklessly with a boat load of other distracting kids in the car is the main problem here.
Parents who let their kids drive their cars (not sure if the kid owned this car or not) have to burn in into their kids skulls that they must be responsible, pay attention to driving and not fooling around.
It is a very very sad way for this boy to learn that lesson - he's responsible for the likely destruction of at least 2 people's lives.
I think how lucky I am to be alive after being in a car when I was a teenager where we only had one car but somehow had to get 8 of us to a party. That was before SUVs and nobody every wore a seatbelt and people were two deep on eachother's laps in front and back seat. Teenagers are dumb and dumberer.
Legal adult
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 10:16am
An 18 year old is legally an adult.
This isn't about parental control, nor should it be.
AT 80 mph on that Jamaicaway, it doesn't matter
By anon
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 10:51am
At 80 mph on that jamaicaway/Riverway, it doesn't matter whether people are wearing seatbelts. They would've been injured anyway, although possibly not as seriously. People should wear seat belts, and not speed.
My g*d!
By anon
Thu, 09/19/2013 - 9:50am
What business did the kid have doing 80 mph on the Jamaicaway in the first place? It's because of the lack of law enforcement that such injuries happen. He should have his license pulled and be put behind bars for awhile for causing such injury and misery to other people, as well as for speeding.
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