april Archives - WalkMassachusetts

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, April 2022

By WalkMassachusetts | May 31, 2022

Each month, we post about the fatal crashes in Massachusetts from the previous month, and share any trends that we see. For the full list of monthly posts, head here. Earlier this year, we released a year in review for 2021 to highlight common issues.

Last month, we took a look at the seven fatal crashes listed in the MassDOT Crash Portal in March. In this post, we’ll look at crashes in MA in April 2022. The information in the chart below is compiled from news reports, and was checked against the MassDOT Crash Portal Dashboard “Fatal Crash Information.” The Google Street View images included below use the address listed in the crash portal.

Of the 21 fatal crashes in Massachusetts in April in the MassDOT Crash portal, three were identified as people walking.
The average age of pedestrians hit & killed in April was 60.
One additional fatal crash was in the news: 5-year-old Candice Asare-Yeboah was struck on April 18th on Stafford Street in Worcester and passed away in the ICU on May 24th; a vigil at the crash site was held on Sunday, May 30th. Since Candice died more than 30 days from the date of the crash, this crash may not be included in the federal FARS dataset.

Update, 6/1: After this monthly post was added, a reader sent us a link to an additional fatal crash that was not listed in the portal. On April 27th, a 78-year-old woman was hit and killed at Elm Street and Whittier Street in Andover. We reached out to MassDOT who followed up with Andover PD about this crash; the fatal crash report has now been submitted to MassDOT and added to the crash database.

Date	4/4/2022, 12:50 AM
Location	Kneeland St. + Hudson St.
Town	Boston
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	33
Sex	M

Richard Mullins, age 33, was struck and killed by 36-year-old Abana Cabrera on Kneeland Street in Boston. UniversalHub reported:

Abana Cabrera, 36, of Randolph, was arraigned yesterday in Boston Municipal Court, before Mullins’s death, on charges of operating under the influence of alcohol causing serious bodily injury, OUI alcohol as a second offense, and failure to stop or yield, the DA’s office says, adding she had been earlier convicted of DUI in Nevada in 2016…The defendant allegedly made statements to Boston Police detectives that she had been drinking since 4 p.m. the prior afternoon.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Kneeland Street & Hudson Streets are under local jurisdiction. There are two lanes and a bike lane in each direction on Kneeland. There is no crosswalk across Kneeland Street at Hudson. The intersection of Kneeland and Hudson is one block from the intersection of Kneeland and Albany Street, which has access to I-93 and I-90. The speed limit is 30mph.

Date	4/11/2022, 8:27 PM
Location	I-291 EAST, EXIT 3
Town	Springfield
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	75
Sex	F

Roselaine Jacquet, age 75, was struck and killed on I-291 East just before Exit 3. Western Mass News reported that a 34-year-old Springfield man was driving eastbound when he struck her in the center travel lane.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under MassDOT jurisdiction. It is a limited access highway, with a median and 3 travel lanes in each direction. The speed limit is 55mph.

This section of I-291 is also signed as Rt 20.

Date	4/12/2022, 8:10 PM
Location	27 North St.
Town	Salem
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	72
Sex	M

The Salem News reported that a 72-year old Salem male was treated on scene then rushed to Salem Hospital with serious head injuries after he was struck by the driver of a vehicle on North Street (Rt 114) in Salem.

WalkBoston has conducted a number of walk audits in Salem over the last few years. This intersection is located outside the planned route of the September 2019 North Salem Walk Audit, but other intersections along North Street were examined at that time.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under local jurisdiction. At this intersection with Lynde Street, there are two lanes in each direction to accommodate turning lanes, with a bike lane on one side and a bike lane that transitions to sharrows on the other side. The speed limit is 30mph.

Updates
If you have an update about a community member who was killed in one of these crashes, please contact Brendan so we can update our 2022 list. WalkBoston has maintained a list each year since 2016, pulling the information from news reports, social media, and from people like you that share the information with us.
Yearly trackers: | ||||| 2022
Report: Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in MA (2021)

Reminder about the data from the MassDOT portal
MassDOT makes no representation as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, availability or completeness of the crash records or the data collected from them and is not responsible for any errors or omissions in such records or data. Under no circumstance will MassDOT have any liability for any loss or damage incurred by any party as a result of the use of the crash records or the data collected from them. Furthermore, the data contained in the web-based crash report tool are not an official record of what transpired in a particular crash or for a particular crash type. If a user is interested in an official copy of a crash report, contact the Registry (http://www.mass.gov/rmv/). The City of Boston Police Department may be contacted directly for official copies of crash reports and for crash data pertaining to the City of Boston. In addition, any crash records or data provided for the years after 2018 are subject to change at any time and are not to be considered up-to-date or complete. As such, open years’ of crash data are for informational purposes only and should not be used for analysis. The data posted on this website, including crash records and other reports, are collected for the purpose of identifying, evaluating or planning the safety enhancement of potential crash sites, hazardous roadway conditions or railway-highway crossings. Under federal law, this information is not subject to discovery and cannot be admitted into evidence in any federal or state court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages that involves the sites mentioned in these records (see 23 USC, Section 409).

Bridge Project Management, Project File No. 606475 (Allston / I-90 Massachusetts Turnpike Interchange Improvement Project)

By WalkMassachusetts | April 25, 2014

April 24, 2014

Patricia Leavenworth, P.E., Chief Engineer
MassDOT
10 Park Plaza
Boston, MA 02116

ATTN: Bridge Project Management, Project File No. 606475
Delivery via email to dot.feedback.highway@state.ma.us

Dear Ms. Leavenworth,

WalkBoston is pleased to provide comments on the Allston I-90, Massachusetts Turnpike Interchange Improvement Project and the April 10, 2014 public meeting. We are also pleased to have been invited to participate in the project advisory group.

We write to note the issues that we hope will be addressed by the project, some of them to be included in long-range planning and others to be included in project design – but all of them will contribute to the successful reclamation of a large and important piece of the City that has for too long been disregarded as a part of the surrounding community.

1. Project scope – The scope of the project needs to extend far enough along the Turnpike to look at bigger picture auto circulation, including access between the Longwood Medical Area, the Fenway, Back Bay and the Turnpike and relief of traffic at the Bowker Overpass and on Storrow Drive. Addressing these major vehicular demands will potentially provide significant opportunities to enhance the regionally important open space, walking, running and bicycling assets along the Charles River.

2. Pedestrian access throughout the project – Scoping of the project should include guidelines for designs to facilitate pedestrian travel through the project and into surrounding neighborhoods.

3. Air rights development – Intensive use of the air rights above the rail yards and the Turnpike can be foreseen as part of any long-range plan. Ramps and access roads, the mainline of the Turnpike and the commuter rail yards should be designed to accommodate development of the air rights.

4. Land uses in the newly available land – The needs of the community and adjacent institutions should guide development, rather than the needs of traffic to and from the Turnpike. Traffic needs should not limit the explorations of the potential uses of the land.

5. Affordable housing for residents of Allston – Housing goals should be outlined early to permit inclusion in all aspects of the study.

6. Minimize the impacts of regional traffic on neighborhood streets – The alignment and connections of turnpike on and off-ramps should be designed to minimize cut through traffic and to protect the integrity of residential areas.

7. Rail Yards – The design for reconstruction of the rail yards should minimize the number of required tracks (possibly looking at other locations to provide some of the necessary rail yards) and provide footprints for the supporting columns that enable air rights development above them.

8. Commuter rail station – The design of a new West Station should be advanced to a point where its location and likely dimensions are known, to allow for planning its access to proceed as part of this project. Station access should be provided for both sides of the rail tracks between North Allston and Commonwealth Avenue.

9. Reconnecting Packard’s Corner area and North Allston – An impenetrable wall of rail tracks and the Turnpike will separate the two parts of this neighborhood forever, unless provision for crossing is planned from the beginning, either with air rights or with bridges, or both.

10. Transit access – Bus, commuter rail and other modes of public transportation should be considered as part of the overall design at a very early date.

11. Turnpike main line – The lanes in the new portion of the Turnpike between Agganis Way and Cambridge St. should be separated sufficiently to allow for the construction of supporting columns for new uses on air rights above the Turnpike.

12. Turnpike access ramps – Access ramps should be designed in spare and efficient ways that afford the maximum use of the land for non-transportation purposes. Short tunnels should not be excluded from consideration.

13. Storrow Drive Alignment – A long-range plan for the area should include relocation of a portion of Soldiers Field Road away from the river. All access to and from the Turnpike and Cambridge Street should take this into consideration and not preclude potential options for connections.

14. A new park along the river – Relocation of Storrow Drive away from the river allows expansion of the adjacent parkland, which is now very narrow and constrained.

15. Connecting the area with the Charles River – Alternatives should be examined for connections between development in this area and the river for both pedestrians and bicycles.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide input to the project.

Best regards,

Wendy Landman
Executive Director

Bob Sloane
Senior Project Manager