charlestown Archives - WalkMassachusetts

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, December 2023

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.

In our previous post, we took a look at crashes listed in the MassDOT Crash Portal in November; six were identified as people walking. In this post, we’ll look at crashes in MA in December 2023. The information in the chart below is compiled from news reports, and was checked against the MassDOT Crash Portal Dashboard “Fatal Crash Information.” Any Google Street View images included below use the address listed in the crash portal.

Of the 35 fatal crashes in Massachusetts in December in the MassDOT Crash portal, 8 were identified as people walking.
Similar to last month, some of the pedestrian crashes had the ‘speed limit’ field blank in the Road Inventory Viewer. We are now also using the MassGIS-MassDOT Roads layer to check for speed limit information.
The average age of pedestrians hit & killed in December was 58.7. (One crash victim’s age was not released.)

Date	12/6/2023, 4:40 PM
Location	166 Totten Pond Rd.
Town	Waltham
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	58
Sex	M

Date	12/6/2023, 4:40 PM
Location	166 Totten Pond Rd.
Town	Waltham
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	36
Sex	M

NBC Boston reports 54-year old Peter Simon drove into an active roadside work zone which was set up to investigate a possible gas leak and killed 58-year old Paul Tracey, a Waltham police officer, and 36-year old Roderick Jackson, a National Grid employee.

From NBC Boston:

Prosecutors said Simon drove into the work site and veered between a National Grid truck and a backhoe. Between the two vehicles was a trench where National Grid employees were working. Tracey was directing traffic and Jackson was near him when Simon veered his vehicle in their direction, striking them both.
The work site was clearly marked with orange cones, orange signs and yellow flashing lights to alert drivers, prosecutors said.
After striking Tracey and Jackson, Simon crashed into multiple vehicles on scene, including a National Grid truck, at which point he abandoned the Ford F-150 and ran off.

This is the second incident in less than two months (October 12th in Pittsfield) in which someone was struck and killed while doing their job in a well-marked work zone.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Totten Pond Rd is under local jurisdiction. It is a two-way road with one travel lane in each direction. There are no sidewalks on either side of the street. The speed limit is 45mph.

Date	12/13/2023, 9:27 PM
Location	Wilbur Ave. + Brayton Point Rd.
Town	Somerset
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	55
Sex	M

1420 WBSM reports that 55-year old Matthew Martinville was struck and killed by the 49-year old driver of a Chevy Silverado on Wilbur Avenue; a preliminary investigation by Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to that office and Somerset Police revealed that the driver of the truck was traveling westbound on Wilbur Avenue through the intersection of Brayton Avenue when he struck Martinville in the roadway.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Wilbur Ave is under MassDOT jurisdiction. Brayton Point Rd is under local jurisdiction. Each street is a two-way road with one travel lane in each direction. There is a sidewalk on one side of each street. There is a sidewalk at each corner of the intersection, though no curb ramps. The speed limit is 35mph on Wilbur Ave, and 30mph on Brayton Point Rd.

Date	12/14/2023, 6:09 PM
Location	419 Main St.
Town	Southbridge
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	79
Sex	M

79-year old Prosper R. Gadoury was struck by a driver and then transported to UMass Memorial in Worcester, where he died on December 22nd from his injuries.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Main Street is under local jurisdiction. It is a two-way road with one travel lane in each direction. There are sidewalks on both sides of the street. The speed limit is 25mph.

Date	12/18/2023, 3:08 AM
Location	Alford St. + Dexter St.
Town	Charlestown
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	UNKNOWN
Sex	M

NBC Boston reports a pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run crash outside in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood [near Encore Boston Harbor] just after 3 a.m. on Alford and Dexter streets. The drive of the vehicle fled the scene. Investigators believe the driver fled on Alford Street toward Everett before officers arrived.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Alford Street (Rt 99) and Dexter Street are both under local jurisdiction. Dexter Street is a two-way road with one travel lane in each direction. Alford Street (Rt 99) is a two-way road with two travel lanes in each direction, expanding to six lanes (two lanes toward Boston, four lanes in the direction of Everett) after passing the Dexter/Alford intersection. There are sidewalks on both sides of the street. The speed limit for Alford Street (Rt 99) is 40mph. The speed limit for Dexter Street is unclear, with blank fields in both the MassDOT Road Inventory & the MassGIS-MassDOT Roads layer.

Date	12/20/2023, 8:40 AM
Location	100 Elliott St.
Town	Haverhill
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	80
Sex	M

An 80-year old resident of Lakeview House in Haverhill died after being struck by a bus near a bus stop by the entrance of the Haverhill campus of Northern Essex Community College.

WHAV reports that he is being remembered as an avid bus rider who traveled almost every day:

MeVa Transit Administrator and CEO Noah S. Berger told WHAV the man was known to the bus driver and passengers. He said, “This is why situations like this are so heartbreaking because, obviously, our hearts go out to the family of the gentleman. Nothing we can do can bring him back. For our operators, that’s always the biggest nightmare. That’s the thing that everyone is terrified of. It’s a devastating thing and awful for the other riders of the bus.”

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Elliott Street is under local jurisdiction. It is a two-way road with one travel lane in each direction. There are no sidewalks on either side of the street. The speed limit is 30mph.

Date	12/29/2023, 5:10 PM
Location	SR-140 SOUTH, between EXIT 3 + 4
Town	New Bedford
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	28
Sex	F

MassLive reports 28-year old Julia Luiz was struck and killed in a multi-vehicle crash on SR-140 after her vehicle broke down in the left lane.

Law enforcement’s preliminary investigation revealed Luiz was driving a Toyota Camry when it apparently became disabled in the left lane. She was outside her car in the roadway when a 63-year-old New Bedford man driving a Toyota RAV4 struck her vehicle, the district attorney’s office detailed.
Moments later, a Toyota Camry driven by a 58-year-old Rochester man also hit Luiz’s disabled car, according to Quinn’s office.
Luiz died as a result of the crash. None of the other drivers were seriously injured, the district attorney’s office said.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, SR-140 is under MassDOT jurisdiction. It is a two-way median divided roadway with two travel lanes in each direction. There are no sidewalks. The speed limit is 65mph.

Date	12/30/2023, 7:01 PM
Location	Warren Ave. SOUTH + West Elm St. EAST
Town	Brockton
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	75
Sex	F

We could not find any additional news coverage of this crash. If you have any information, please let us know.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, West Elm Street and Warren Ave are both under local jurisdiction. West Elm St is a two-way road with one travel lane in each direction. Warren Ave is a one-way road with three travel lanes. There are sidewalks on both sides of the street. The speed limit on West Elm St is 30mph, and the speed limit on Warren Ave is 25mph.

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 2023 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: 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023
Report: Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in MA (2021)
Report: Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in MA (2022)

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).

One Mystic Avenue PNF Comment Letter

Raul Duverge
Boston Planning and Development Agency
Re: One Mystic Avenue PNF

Dear Mr. Duverge:

WalkBoston has reviewed the PNF for the One Mystic Avenue Project with respect to its impacts and benefits for people walking and using transit. We would like to echo the concerns raised by a number of others during the public meeting held on May 18th, that the project seems to be getting ahead of the PLAN Charlestown process and that the proponents have put forth a project that would use a great deal of the development capacity envisioned for this part of Charlestown on one small site. We urge the development team to work with the community as the project scale and design are refined to find a better fit with the overall planning context of the site.

From a walking perspective we have several specific concerns. While we are pleased that the project is proposed to be transit oriented and to have a low parking to housing unit ratio, and a high transit and walking mode share, the proposal does not seem to include the attention to walking that would be needed to make it a successful TOD site. Nor does the plan seem to include the attention to walking that will need to be made to attract people from Charlestown and Sullivan Station to use the proposed retail and food uses planned for the site.

The existing walking connection from the development site to Sullivan Station is not comfortable or attractive due to the lack of sidewalks on the south side of Mystic Avenue, and requires a circuitous route with many street crossings due to the fact that there are no marked pedestrian crossings between Beacham Street and Grand Union Boulevard. The walk to the Charlestown neighborhood is even more difficult due to the complexity of traversing Sullivan Square on foot despite recent short-term sidewalk improvements, and the continued existence of Rutherford Avenue/State Route 99 as a below-grade high-speed arterial.
Based on the transportation improvements listed in the PNF (page 4-22) and the proponent’s answer during the public meeting, the project team is not proposing to include off site walking improvements in their transportation mitigation measures.
As indicated during the public meeting, the proponent is anticipating that walking connections to Sullivan Station and to the Charlestown neighborhood would be improved by the Sullivan Square/Rutherford Avenue Boston Transportation Department (BTD) street redesign project. However, with the proponent’s hope to be open for occupancy in 2024-2025, they are well ahead of the BTD project schedule. Without an agreed-upon plan in existence, that project has been pushed out on the Transportation Improvement Plan funding schedule, with the full construction budget not yet programmed through 2025.

We urge the proponent to re-think their off-site walking mitigation measures in order to create the kind of safe, attractive and convenient walking routes that will be needed to fulfill their proposed housing and retail programs and to ensure the potential for a truly transit oriented project. We also urge the proponent to engage in the PLAN Charlestown effort and the Sullivan Square/Rutherford Avenue planning effort to speak up for the high quality pedestrian and bicycle connections to make this site work for walking, biking and transit.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments.

Sincerely,

Stacey Beuttell, Executive Director

Wendy Landman, Senior Policy Advisor

Statewide Fatal Crashes in MA, January 2021

Each month in 2021, we plan to post about the fatal crashes in Massachusetts from the previous month, and share any trends that we see. Last month, we took a look at the year 2020 in review. In this post, we’ll look at crashes in MA in January 2021. The information in the chart below is compiled from news reports, and was checked against the MassDOT Crash Portal Dashboard “Fatal Information by Year.” The Google Street View images included below use the address listed in the crash portal.

Of the 20 fatal crashes in Massachusetts in January in the MassDOT Crash portal, 5 were people walking.
3 of those 5 crashes were hit & runs.
The crash portal does not include names. The names of 2 of the people walking who died have not been made public yet.
The name of the person driving was only identified in 1 of the 5 crashes in news articles.

Date	1/2/2021, 11:00 PM
Location	200 Locust St.
Town	Springfield
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age
Sex	M

An unidentified man was killed in a hit and run crash on Locust Street in Springfield. There have been no follow up articles that we’ve seen identifying the person who died, or anything about the person that fled the scene. WesternMassNews says the Police Department has located the car and vehicle owner, and expects more from the District Attorney’s office.

Date	1/5/2021, 11:30 AM
Location	Chelsea St. + 13th St.
Town	Boston
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	92
Sex	M

Francis McGrath, a 92 year old man, was killed in a hit and run crash on Chelsea Street in Charlestown. The driver dragged him for nearly a mile. The crash location is listed as Chelsea St & 13th (entrance to the Charlestown Navy Yard), while StreetsblogMass reports the Boston Police said it happened even further back at Chelsea St & Terminal St. While there had been speculation that the driver of a large truck was involved, there have been no follow up articles that we’ve seen about the person that left the scene. We spoke to the Boston Herald about the safety issues large vehicles present for people walking/biking, and the increase of drivers speeding during the coronavirus pandemic.

Date	1/13/2021, 7:19 PM
Location	235 Main St.
Town	Oxford
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	55
Sex	F

Wendy Hibbard was crossing Main Street in Oxford when a driver hit and killed her. Based on Google Maps Street View, a crosswalk across Main Street was made ADA-compliant sometime between October 2018 and October 2019. The street is one lane in each direction with a sidewalk on each side, but it looks to be approximately 50 feet from curb to curb using the measuring tool on Google Maps. According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Main Street/Rt12 is under MassDOT jurisdiction.

Date	1/19/2021, 9:30 PM
Location	38 Upland Rd.
Town	Belmont
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	35
Sex	M

District Attorney Marian T. Ryan’s office shared on January 25th that Dean Kapsalis, 54 of Hudson, will face additional charges of murder and leaving the scene causing death in connection with striking and killing Henry Tapia on Upland Road in Belmont. Kapsalis was previously arraigned on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a civil rights violation causing injury and leaving the scene causing injury. The Boston Globe reported that “since getting a driver’s license around 1987, Kapsalis has been cited for speeding at least 17 times, was involved in at least 7 surcharge crashes, and had his right to drive suspended at least 6 times, usually for a cluster of traffic violations in a short period of time, according to RMV records.”

Date	1/23/2021, 8:42 PM
Location	687 Ocean St.
Town	Marshfield
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	56
Sex	M

An unidentified 56 year old Marshfield man was hit and killed on Ocean Street in Marshfield. An article from 95.9 WATD quotes a police lieutenant that the “early investigation shows the victim was walking in the roadway along a dark stretch.” The street is one lane in each direction, but there is only a sidewalk on one side of the street.

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 2021 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: 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021

Reminder about the data from the MassDOT portal
DISCLAIMER: The compilation of data is based on preliminary data we receive from a variety of local sources. Some of the data may differ slightly from information provided by NHTSA as this dashboard does not use imputation methods. Information is subject to change when/if updated information becomes available. Data updated daily as reported by police departments.

Boston Herald: “Horror in Charlestown: Pedestrian killed after getting struck, dragged for a mile by vehicle”

During the first five days of the new year, there have already been multiple fatal pedestrian crashes in Massachusetts, including a hit-and-run in Springfield over the weekend, said Brendan Kearney of the WalkBoston advocacy group.
“The number of large vehicles involved with fatal crashes, especially involving people walking or biking, is a huge concern,” he said. “And that’s not just in Boston, but across the state and across the country.
“There are bad sight lines on these vehicles,” Kearney added. “And it’s putting everyone in a bad situation when we have large vehicles and streets where people can drive fast.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, there have been fewer cars on the roads but drivers are speeding at a higher clip, he said.
“That’s something we’ve seen across the state,” Kearney said.

Posted January 5, 2021

Austin St Pop-up and Safe Access to Parks

On Wednesday, July 17, 2019, WalkBoston joined many departments from the City of Boston for a Sidewalk Series/Austin St Pop-up in Thompson Square in Charlestown.

Safe access to parks is an important part of creating a safe and walkable neighborhood. We encouraged attendees to add a green sticker to a map for places that felt safe for pedestrians, and a red sticker for areas that needed improvement. Many people then explained why it didn’t feel safe, and how they would fix things to make it better. We also heard great ideas about this section of Austin Street being something other than an extra slip lane for vehicles, all because it was opened up for a few hours to help people see the possibilities. We’ll be sharing all of the feedback we received with the city.

Thank you to the Age Strong Commission, New Urban Mechanics, Office of Neighborhood Services & Public Works for asking us to participate & making the day a success – and thanks to everyone that stopped by at the pop-up and shared your feedback (or just played with the bubble machine for a while)!