The driver of a Mercedes SUV struck and killed a person who was riding a bicycle along the Memorial Drive bike path in Cambridge near the Boston University DeWolfe Boathouse during the Monday evening rush hour.
The victim has been identified as John Corcoran, 62, of Newton.
Police from the Cambridge Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police responded to the crash at 5:45 p.m. Monday afternoon.
According to eyewitness accounts, Corcoran was biking west towards the B.U. Bridge on the Paul Dudley White pathway when the perpetrator – who has not yet been identified – drove off the roadway and struck the victim head-on.
"He was on an e-bike, so going a bit faster than me, but at a reasonable speed," recalled Daniel Alexandrescu, a Boston resident who witnessed the crash during his bike commute home from work in Kendall Square.
"He was about a hundred feet ahead of me," Alexandrescu told StreetsblogMASS. "Then I saw the Mercedes SUV coming up over the hill... It seemed like (the driver) swerved onto the sidewalk, he hit the biker head-on. The biker was on the sidewalk, not on the road, when he got hit, and went flying over the hood of the car."
Photos from the scene taken by WCVB on Monday evening show a black Mercedes SUV with considerable damage to its front end and a smashed windshield parked in front of the B.U. boathouse.
Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Gregory Jones told StreetsblogMASS on Tuesday that "the bicyclist was transported to a local hospital where they were treated for life threatening injuries... and sadly succumbed to their injuries."
Jones did not specify whether the driver is facing any charges, but added that the homicide remains under investigation.
State park agency had been warned about location's safety hazards
The location of Monday's killing is a notorious safety hazard for bicycle and foot traffic, which is heavy along the riverfront pathways of the Paul Dudley White Trail.
At the site of Corcoran's killing, an on-ramp from the Boston University Bridge merges with the four-lane Memorial Drive, while the busy Paul Dudley White pathways merge into a narrow, poorly-maintained sidewalk for an 800-foot gap between the boathouse and the bridge.
The agency in charge of this roadway and the adjacent riverfront paths is the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the state's parks agency.
Last year, a group of safety advocates gathered to alert the DCR to these hazards, and recommended a suite of safety improvements to the area – including widening the path between the bridge and the boathouse.
In a 2023 letter to the DCR, state Sen. William Brownsberger suggested that "this dangerous situation can be mitigated by raising the bike facilities along Goose Park to the pedestrian path height… (to) permit space for two-way bike traffic."
Late on Tuesday afternoon, a DCR spokesperson wrote that “we are actively working to introduce additional bike lanes to this area of Memorial Drive to improve safety for both cyclists and pedestrians, and will be engaging with stakeholders, legislators and the public as we move forward with that effort. Our thoughts are with the victim’s loved ones during this difficult time.”
Another spokesperson told StreetsblogMASS that the agency is planning a "short-term" project to widen the sidewalk between the B.U. Bridge and the boathouse to provide a full 12-foot-wide shared-use pathway along this segment of the roadway. The spokesperson did not specify how quickly that project would be implemented.
