Accident on Kneeland-Harrison Intersection

July 12, 2007 by Chinatown Blogger.

   
Anyone crossing the intersection of Kneeland Street and Harrison Avenue know how dangerous it is. This is particularly true if you are on the east side of Harrison crossing over Kneeland. As the light on Kneeland turns red, the crosswalks signals for pedestrians to walk. However, cars from Harrison Ave going south also has a GREEN light on at the SAME time. I’ve seen this happen many times, pedestrians dodging cars as they make a right or left turn onto Kneeland.

Today at about 12:45pm a woman in a motorized wheelchair was hit by a car doing this same left turn, from Harrison to Kneeland. Here is a picture of the Kneeland-Harrison intersection. Where the white taxi is heading towards is the spot of the accident. The elderly woman was crossing from the left hand side on a motorized wheelchair.

The police, firetruck and ambulance came. I walked over and asked if the elderly woman (who was Chinese) needed help with interpretation. There were 2 women there I assumed were her friends. They informed me the victim spoke English and also explained what happened. At this time, the victim was speaking to the medics who asked if she needed medical attention.

I took this close up picture of the damaged wheelchair. The victim told me that she was OK, but she was fortunate that the car cracked the wheelchair and not her. You can see that the front of the motorized wheelchair is cracked.

Someone really needs to push the City of Boston and the Department of Transportation to fix the lights on this intersection. Keep the light on red for cars traveling on Harrison Ave an extra 15 seconds — this would allow pedestrians to cross the over Kneeland Street safely.

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