As a Child, ‘Succession’ Star Jeremy Strong Narrowly Avoided Becoming Another Crash Victim on Boston’s Arborway
The Emmy-winning actor who plays Kendall Roy in HBO’s “Succession” grew up in Boston’s Jamaica Plain.
But he very nearly didn’t grow up at all, thanks to the lethal traffic that speeds through the neighborhood on highways managed by the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Strong recounted his childhood experience with Boston’s roadway violence in a recent interview for CBS Sunday Morning.
Walking along the Arborway near St. Joseph Street, Strong gestures toward the crosswalk at the entrance to the Arnold Arboretum and recounts how, as an 8-year-old boy, he watched a speeding car strike and severely injure his father while they were walking to the park.
“There was a car coming, like, 40 miles an hour, that wasn’t slowing down for the traffic light,” Strong tells reporter Ben Mankiewicz. “So he picked me up and threw me out of the way. And he got hit by the car, broke all the bones in both of his legs. He saved my life.”
The location where Strong recalls having his near-death experience is the same place where the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) – the state agency in charge of the Arborway – is re-striping the roadway this week to add another lane and facilitate even faster motor vehicle traffic.
DCR has claimed that the re-striping project will maintain the painted bike lane, but many neighbors suspect that the project will necessarily reduce the protective buffer that currently exists between the bike lane and speeding vehicles.
DCR has not responded to repeated requests to share detailed drawings of their plans.
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