DEATH ON THE STREETS
Woman hit by truck is latest victim of busy byways
Bunches of white, red and pink flowers were ziptied to a Cambridge street sign — a makeshift memorial and the last tokens of evidence of a vehicle crash that cost one woman her life.
Cambridge police tweeted they were on scene of a serious motor vehicle accident at 4:40 p.m. Friday, where a pedestrian was hit by a tractor-trailer/dump truck at the intersection of Market Street and Putnam Avenue.
The woman, who has not been identified yet, died on scene. She was in her 20s.
“Life is fragile,” said Cambridge resident Bill Boxx. “She was just walking home or going to a friend’s house or the store. She was doing everyday stuff and didn’t even realize she had only a few seconds left on this earth. It is sad.”
Boxx, who works in the Cambridgeport Baptist Church across the street, and coworker Holly Wiegand put flowers up at the crash scene to honor the woman.
“This is a part of our neighborhood and we just wanted to pay our respects and go out and pray for her and her family,” Wiegand said.
The area gets a lot of foot traffic from students and people frequenting the nearby shops, but it isn’t always the safest place for pedestrians, said Wiegand.
“I am a pedestrian and a biker, and it can get very busy around here,” said Wiegand, who lives in Cambridge. “In a city with so many pedestrians it can get kind of dangerous so it’s really important to be mindful (as a pedestrian).”
Residents on social media expressed their outrage, stating that speed is often an issue in that area. But Wiegand said pedestrians also need to be paying attention.
“Often when we are walking we have our headphones in or are on our phones and we make those small, unsafe choices like jaywalking or darting out between cars, and you never know when something is going to happen,” Wiegand said.
Last year, the number of pedestrian deaths ranked as the second-deadliest year for pedestrians in decades, reported the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. More than 37,000 Americans died in traffic fatalities, with almost 6,000 of those including pedestrian deaths.
Heidi King, NHTSA deputy administrator, told USA Today they are seeing the most increases in mixed traffic and urban areas.
“We are open to any and all ideas that helps us get these deaths to zero because we don’t want to continue to see any increases, and we understand the importance of managing transportation options for mobility and safety for everyone in our community,” King said.
The report showed that “the proportion of people killed ‘outside the vehicle’ (motorcyclists, pedestrians, pedalcyclists and other nonoccupants) increased from a low of 20 percent in 1996 to a high of 33 percent in 2017.”