Truck strikes and kills Boston University student on bicycle
The weight disparity between a tractor trailer truck and a bicyclist is enormous. Should an accident occur, the person on the bicycle is almost certain to suffer serious personal injuries. It was recently reported that there have been five fatal bicycle accidents in the Boston area, each of them caused by a truck, bus or trolley.
Recently a Boston University graduate student became one of those statistics when he was struck by a semi truck and died as a result of his personal injuries.
The accident occurred at about 8:30 in the morning in the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and St. Paul Street. A preliminary investigation indicates that the truck driver was making a right hand turn when the truck struck the 23-year-old BU student.
The accident was witnessed by one of the grad student’s classmates, who described the bicyclist as being under the bus.
If the truck was making a right hand turn, it would most likely need to yield to someone in the crosswalk. An aerial view shows that there is a crosswalk on both sides of the intersection. The BU campus is on either side of the street, so it is conceivable that the student was simply on his way to class.
Should the truck driver prove negligent in any way, the 23-year-old’s surviving family members could seek compensation for his wrongful death.
In somewhat related news, Boston city council has a meeting scheduled to work on making the city’s streets safer for bike riders.
Source: WHDH, “BU student on bike killed in collision with truck,” Dec. 6, 2012
- At our Boston law firm, we represent individuals who are seriously injured or who die in a car, bicycle or truck accident such as the one described in this post.
