Category: Statewide Efforts

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, March 2023

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, March 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.

Last month, we took a look at crashes listed in the MassDOT Crash Portal in February; eight were identified as people walking. In this post, we’ll look at crashes in MA in March 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 25 fatal crashes in Massachusetts in March in the MassDOT Crash portal, 6 were identified as people walking.
  • The average age of pedestrians hit & killed in March was 51.5.
  • Three of the crashes were hit & runs.
Date3/1/2023, 7:07 PM
Location61 Taunton St.
TownPlainville
TypePEDESTRIAN
Age46
SexM

MassLive reports 46-year old William Murry was struck and killed by the driver of a Honda Accord at 7:07PM on Wednesday evening while walking along Taunton Street.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under local jurisdiction. It is a two-way street, with 1 travel lane in each direction. There is a sidewalk on one side of the street. The speed limit is 40mph.

Date3/16/2023, 9:50 AM
LocationUniversity Ave.
TownWestwood
TypePEDESTRIAN
Age82
SexF

82-year old Alice Wedge was struck and killed at 9:50am on Thursday morning as she was trying to cross from a retail complex to the railway station. Boston.com reports two nurses stopped and gave her first aid until an ambulance arrived, but she passed away at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Needham.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under local jurisdiction. Much of the information for University Avenue at this location is incomplete. It is a two-way street, with 3 travel lanes in each direction. There is a shared use path on one side and a sidewalk and street level bike lane on the other side of the street. The speed limit is unclear in the Road Inventory since it is listed as 99. The location is adjacent to the Route 128/University Park Commuter Rail/Amtrak Station and on/off ramps for 128/95.

Date3/24/2023, 11:42 PM
LocationSouth St.
TownHatfield
TypePEDESTRIAN
Age19
SexM

Western Mass News reports 19-year old Jesse Johansmeyer was struck and killed at 11:42pm on Friday night after a bonfire in a remote cornfield in a section known as the Hatfield Meadows which is off of Great Neponset Road and South Street and near the Connecticut River. The driver of the white pickup truck fled the scene.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under local jurisdiction. It is a rural dirt road. The speed limit is unclear in the Road Inventory, and Street View is not available.

Date3/26/2023, 5:03 PM
Location3968 Washington St.
TownBoston
TypePEDESTRIAN
Age60
SexM

60-year old Egdio D’Antuony was struck and killed while sitting on his porch at 5:03pm on Sunday afternoon when he was struck by a vehicle that crashed into the house. His friend, 62-year old Joseph Cobb, suffered life-threatening injuries. The driver of the vehicle that caused the crash fled the scene.

Boston 25 News reports:

Juan Medina, 20, is charged with motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation, leaving the scene of personal injury or death and failing to yield at an intersection for his alleged role in the deadly March 26 crash.

Prosecutors say, Medina, was driving south on Washington Street around 5 p.m. when he turned into the northbound lane. His sudden movement allegedly caused another car to collide with a minivan and then the triple-decker where Edigio D’Antuony and Joseph Cobb sat on the front porch.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under local jurisdiction. It is a two-way street, with 1 travel lane in each direction. There is a sidewalk and street parking on both sides of the street. The speed limit is 30mph.

Date3/27/2023, 4:59 PM
LocationLogan Airport – Lower Roadway Terminal B
TownBoston
TypePEDESTRIAN
Age47
SexM

WWLP reports 47-year old Vishwachand Kolla was struck and killed by the driver of a Dartmouth Transportation motor coach bus at 4:59pm on Monday afternoon as he was standing outside his SUV parked curbside as he waited to pick up a friend from the airport.

Boston 25 News spoke to a bystander:

“I’m like what happened.. to find out that someone lost their life tonight that affects somebody.. especially to know that you’re here the same place and it could have been you,” said Laura Vandiver, Logan Airport passenger.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under Massport jurisdiction. There are 3 through lanes and 1 curbside pickup/drop-off lane on the one-way roadway. The speed limit is 15mph.

Date3/29/2023, 6:20 AM
Location1000 Western Ave.
TownLynn
TypePEDESTRIAN
Age55
SexF

55-year old Emira Barucija was hit and killed in a crosswalk while walking to the bus stop on her morning commute to her job at Salem Hospital. The driver fled the scene. Lynn Police identified the suspect and located the suspect’s vehicle in a parking garage in the Longwood Medical area of Boston. Charges against the driver are anticipated, but not yet filed.

The Lynn Item spoke to an MBTA bus driver after the crash:

An MBTA bus driver, who spoke anonymously, said that at approximately 6 a.m. he saw the victim lying on the ground in the middle of the street, with another woman kneeling beside her.

The bus driver said a GE security guard responded to the scene just before he could call 911. He said that while driving his bus route, he sees erratic drivers in the area nearly every day.

“It’s crazy out here, you wouldn’t believe it,” he said.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under MassDOT jurisdiction. It is a two-way street, with 1 general travel lane and 1 bus/bike lane in each direction. There is a sidewalk on both sides of the street. The speed limit in the Road Inventory is 30mph. (We’ve included a screenshot of the overhead view below, since the painted lanes are not yet updated on Google Street View.)

 

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:  |  ||||| 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).

Join our Board (or a Committee)!

Join our Board (or a Committee)!

Are you passionate about walking, transit, the environment? Do you want to help make Massachusetts more walkable? Join us!

We recently completed a self assessment of our board’s strengths and weaknesses. Through that, we identified several areas as those of greatest need: most notably the fields of public health, climate resiliency, HR, fundraising, transportation engineering, and communications. 

We are also looking for people from all backgrounds and demographics across the state to fully represent the diverse communities in which we work, not just in the Boston area, but from the Hilltowns, throughout the Merrimack Valley, and down to the Cape.

If you’re interested in getting more involved, let us know by filling out this google form.

Please also share this information with members of your network if you think you know someone who would be a good fit for us. We’d love to talk to them!

Board Member Description

The board of WalkMassachusetts (previously known as WalkBoston) is responsible for the strategic governance and oversight of the organization. Working with the Executive Director, the board ensures the organization’s financial health, strategic plan, and goals are aligned with the mission, vision, and values. Members are committed to executing all fiduciary responsibilities and serving as advocates of WalkMassachusetts to the community.

Responsibilities of a Board Member

  • Attend board and committee meetings and significant organizational events.
  • Chair and/or participate in at least one board committee.
  • Participate in establishing and maintaining organizational policies.
  • Make an annual contribution at a level commensurate with personal capacity.
  • Participate actively in organizational fundraising activities.
  • Identify friends and associates who might be prospective donors or board/committee members.
  • Participate in hiring and periodic evaluation of WalkMassachusetts’s Executive Director.
  • Support and advise the Executive Director as appropriate.
  • Participate actively in assessing WalkMassachusetts’s performance and setting its strategic goals and objectives.
  • Serve as an ambassador for WalkMassachusetts in the community.

Desired Qualifications

  • Significant experience in business, nonprofit, academia, government/public service, or another field.
  • Ideally, experience in a field closely related to WalkMassachusetts’s work – e.g. planning/transportation, finance, development, public health, or community organizing.
  • Knowledge of, or willingness to learn about issues of walkability in Massachusetts and the work of pedestrian advocacy. 
  • Belief in, and commitment to WalkMassachusetts’s mission to create more walkable communities across the state.
  • Connections to personal or professional networks with capacity and interest to support the work of the organization.
  • Personal capacity to make an annual contribution to the organization in addition to supporting fundraising efforts.
  • Understanding of the role that diversity and inclusion plays in the work that WalkMassachusetts does.

WalkMassachusetts is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We seek candidates that represent the diverse perspectives and lived experiences throughout the commonwealth, with the goal of having a board that mirrors the diversity of the communities we serve. While a candidate may not demonstrate every qualification listed above, we encourage candidates to apply if they are interested. 

WalkMassachusetts’s board currently meets monthly (10x / year) via Zoom, with a hybrid Annual Celebration in the Spring. Some board meetings may have a hybrid / in-person option. WalkMassachusetts has office space in Downtown Boston at the CIC (50 Milk Street, Boston, MA 02109). Meetings are the fourth Tuesday of the month from 5:30pm – 7pm EST unless otherwise stated. Committee meetings are scheduled separately, based on the availability of committee members, and occur monthly.

WalkMassachusetts Board Committees

  • Communications
  • Development
  • Events
  • Executive
  • Finance 
  • Governance

About WalkMassachusetts

WalkBoston is now WalkMassachusetts! 

WalkMassachusetts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocacy organization that makes walking safer and easier in Massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and more vibrant communities. We have a vision of a Massachusetts where people walking – no matter their race, identity, age, ability, or lived experience – feel safe, connected, and valued on our streets and sidewalks. Founded in 1990 as WalkBoston, it was the first organization in the U.S. dedicated to pedestrian advocacy. Our small, committed staff work as a team to make change: whether it’s getting a crosswalk painted in a neighborhood or influencing Massachusetts state policy to make streets safer for all. Key to our effort is the value we place in Community, Equity, and Partnership.

Fatal Pedestrian Crashes In MA (2022) Report News Coverage

Fatal Pedestrian Crashes In MA (2022) Report News Coverage

We list all media clips on our website, but on this post we consolidated some of the media coverage for the Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in MA (2022) Report. Please let us know if we missed any others that you’ve seen and we can update this post.

Report Overview

In 2022, there were 439 fatal traffic crashes in Massachusetts. After a dip during the first year of the pandemic in 2020, fatal pedestrian crashes in MA returned in 2021 to a level similar to what we’ve seen every year since 2015; this number was over 30% higher in 2022. At least 101 pedestrians lost their lives, accounting for over 23% of the total.

Our state and local leaders can and must take steps to design our streets to be safer for its citizens. We believe that MassDOT should hasten efforts to release an Action Plan based on the Strategic Highway Safety Plan. It is crucial to identify how the safety plan will be implemented. This includes identifying any resources and additional staff that will be required so that the Legislature can appropriately fund the program. In particular, we believe that the first two initiatives, “Implement Speed Management to Realize Safer Speeds” and “Address Top-Risk Locations and Populations” are of particular importance when looking at 2022’s fatal pedestrian crashes.

This report took a closer look at initial crash information made available by MassDOT through the agency’s Interactive Mapping Portal for Analysis and Crash Tracking (IMPACT) portal.

Findings:

  • Of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, 60 had a fatal pedestrian crash in 2022. There were 19 municipalities with multiple fatal crashes, while 10 Gateway Cities had more than one fatal crash.
  • Similar to the concerning trend we found in last year’s report, older adults were hit and killed at a higher rate than those in other age groups: 38.6% of fatal crash victims were over the age of 65, while this segment only represents 17% of the Commonwealth’s total population.1
  • 71% of fatal pedestrian crashes took place in Environmental Justice Census Block Groups. Environmental Justice Population Data is based upon three demographic criteria developed by the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).
  • More than 60% of the fatal pedestrian crashes occurred in the dark (before sunrise or after sunset). A recent Federal Highway Administration report found that in 2020, 76% of all pedestrian-related fatalities in the United States occurred during periods of darkness.2
  • Ten (9.80%) of the fatal pedestrian crashes were hit and run crashes, in which the driver left the scene of the crash.

Coverage:

WalkBoston is now WalkMassachusetts!

WalkBoston is now WalkMassachusetts!

Yes, you read that correctly. After over 30 years of statewide advocacy as WalkBoston, conversations with partners and community members across the state, and a new Strategic Plan, we are changing our name to WalkMassachusetts.

Last year we reaffirmed our Mission and defined our Vision for the future: a Massachusetts where people walking—no matter their race, identity, age, ability, or lived experience—feel safe, connected, and valued on our streets and sidewalks.

To make our Vision a reality, we established 3 goals:

  • Goal 1: Advocate for inclusive, safe, and enjoyable places for people to walk.
  • Goal 2: Work in places where people walking have the greatest need.
  • Goal 3: Achieve policy and built environment change that is noticeable, replicable, and impactful.

This led to self-reflection on where and how we focus our work. The conclusion was a continued emphasis on equitably promoting walking across the state and a clear need to move forward as WalkMassachusetts.

In short, the name has changed, but the mission remains the same: making walking safer and easier in Massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment, and more vibrant communities.

This is not something that happens overnight. You will be hearing much more about this over the coming months as we roll out new branding and logos, so keep your eyes peeled.

Thank you for how you have supported us for these 30 plus years, and we hope you will join us as we walk forward as WalkMassachusetts for the next 30!

Donate Today to Support the “New” WalkMassachusetts

We have an aggressive plan to expand our reach across the state and achieve our new Vision for Massachusetts. This means a lot of hard work from our staff and board, as well as community members and municipal staff across the state. It also means we need your help!

Please donate now to help us make Massachusetts safer and more accessible for all.

PS: We actually held our first “WalkMassachusetts” Network forum meeting back in December 2018. This is a long time coming!