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Crashes

Truck Driver Kills Pedestrian In Harvard Square

4:23 PM EDT on September 17, 2019

Brattle Street in Harvard Square next to the Out of Town News kiosk, shown in a May 2019 file photograph.

A woman in her 60s has been pronounced dead after a boom truck driver struck her in the heart of Harvard Square early this morning, according to reports from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police.

Shortly before 7 a.m., the Cambridge Police and the Cambridge Fire Department reportedly responded to a crash on Brattle Street next to the Out of Town News kiosk.

The victim, described as a female in her 60s, was transported to an area hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

In a statement regarding a preliminary investigation, District Attorney Ryan offered few details, but claimed that the victim "was not in a crosswalk."

StreetsblogMASS has reached out to the District Attorney's office to clarify how investigators came to that conclusion, and whether it will press any charges against the responsible driver.

Harvard Square is one of the busiest foot traffic areas in greater Boston. The Harvard Red Line subway stop, which is adjacent to the crash site, is the third-busiest subway station (behind South Station and Downtown Crossing) in the MTBA system, with over 23,000 daily entries, and in deference to the area's pedestrian traffic, there are three broad crosswalks in close proximity crossing Brattle Street in the vicinity of Out of Town News.

The death in Harvard Square marks the region's third serious crash in less than a week. Last Wednesday evening, a van driver killed one pedestrian and injured another in Fort Point; on Thursday, a garbage truck driver seriously injured another pedestrian on the McGrath Highway in Somerville.

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