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Massachusetts truck safety regulations spur division in wake of Cambridge cyclist deaths

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Massachusetts truck safety regulations spur division in wake of Cambridge cyclist deaths


Opposition from a state municipal lobbying group over regulations that look to bolster safety around large trucks has drawn the ire of elected officials in Cambridge, where two cyclists have died after being struck in recent weeks.

All state-contracted trucks must be equipped with side guards, improved mirrors and backup cameras by January 2025, an order the Massachusetts Municipal Association says is “not reasonable for cities and towns.”

The private nonprofit says it understands the need for “reasonable measures to help to reduce injuries and fatalities on our roadways.”

The regulations, however, are “an unreasonable ask and considerable overstep of regulatory authority,” MMA’s executive director and CEO Adam Chapdelaine wrote in testimony to the state Department of Transportation.

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A pair of Cambridge city councilors took to social media after listening to MMA’s testimony during a MassDOT hearing on Friday.

“These regulations will save lives,” Vice Mayor Marc McGovern posted on X. “They would have saved the lives of Kim Staley and Minh-Thi Nguyen.”

Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler added, “@massmunicipal does not represent Cambridge or plenty of other municipalities on this. When they say they speak for ‘all cities & towns’ in Massachusetts against side guards and other safety features on trucks in municipalities, they don’t speak for us.”

Staley, 55, of Florida, died on June 7 when the driver of a box truck struck her at the intersection of DeWolfe and Mt. Auburn streets, close to Memorial Drive along the Charles River. The truck, which reportedly lacked side guards, turned right as the cyclist traveled straight across, according to authorities.

Two weeks later, on June 21, Nguyen, a third-year physics graduate student at MIT, died at age 24, when a box truck driver struck her at the intersection of Hampshire and Portland streets.

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A day before Nguyen’s death, MassDOT sent a guidance memorandum to contractors, subcontractors and municipalities, outlining the so-called “Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities.”

The law specifically requires “a motor vehicle, trailer, semi-trailer or semi-trailer unit classified as a class 3 or above” to be equipped with a lateral protective device, convex and crossover mirrors, and backup cameras by Jan. 1, 2025.

It will apply to vehicles leased or purchased by the state or operating under a state contract after the new year. Ambulances and other emergency medical vehicles, firetrucks, agricultural tractors and state-owned vehicles leased or purchased before 2023 will be exempt.

Chapdelaine took exception to how the law includes municipal contracts funded with state aid through MassDOT and requires that any providers contracting with municipalities must comply.

Chapdelaine estimated that 90% of each municipal DPW fleet alone would require retrofits that would cost anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000.

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“We strongly support making necessary changes to reflect the true intent of the legislation and the legal underpinning of the updated state law,” Chapdelaine added in a statement to the Herald later Friday.

Charlie Baker signed the bill on one of his last days in the governor’s office. It also requires drivers to maintain a four-foot buffer when they pass construction workers, emergency responders, pedestrians and cyclists, and established a process for municipalities to request lower speed limits on state-owned roadways.

So far this year, 11 people have been killed in crashes with large trucks across Massachusetts, according to MassBike. Within the past decade, 28% of fatal bike crashes have involved large trucks, the organization states.

Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Newton, have already enacted similar requirements for their respective municipal agencies and contractors.

Charlotte Fleetwood, a senior transportation planner in Boston, said the ordinance is “not perfect but we believe it has saved lives.” The city recently purchased surround cameras for all of its large fleet vehicles, and officials are working with MassDOT to measure blind zones, she said.

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Fleetwood is calling for federal action to require large vehicles be designed to be “inherently safer without these large blind zones and side cavities.”

In late March, a 4-year-old girl, Gracie Gancheva, of Denver, Colorado, died after being struck by a truck driver at an intersection near Boston Children’s Museum. Days later, a cement truck driver collided with and killed a 57-year-old man, Fernando R. Pizzaro, in a wheelchair at another South Boston intersection.

“We need to end this harm, and we can do it,” Fleetwood said.

Owners subject to the law must certify that their motor vehicle is equipped with the required devices, with certification and necessary documentation submitted to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Owners may apply for a waiver if their vehicle can’t comply due to the design, operation or other safety considerations.

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The regulations have blindsided municipal officials across the state, said Bob Szocik, director of public works in Templeton, a town of roughly 8,000 in northern Worcester County.

“My heart goes out to all of the tragedies that have happened,” he said, “but from the municipality standpoint, we have not been reached out and notified about this change.”

The lack of notification will impact town budgets, Szocik said. Templeton expects to increase its fleet with new trucks in December, he added.

“Can I catch them and have them outfitted?” Szocik asked during MassDOT’s hearing. “Where am I going to get the extra money? It’s not fair to us in a short amount of time.”

Andover resident Eric Olson has turned tragedy into advocacy. His 5-year-old daughter, Sidney Mae, died in May 2023 after being struck by the driver of a tractor-trailer at a busy intersection in Merrimack Valley town.

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An investigation into the tragedy found the driver not at fault, Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker announced last November. The driver did not face any criminal charges.

Olson has been pushing for side guards to be required on all trucks, encouraging MassDOT to provide incentives and grants to business owners to make their vehicles safer.

“Her death shows up as a number – one,” Olson said. “But, its impact is far more rippling. … Every day, we put the livelihood and the well-being of truck drivers at risk by not properly equipping them with safety equipment. One crash can ruin a career and shatter a life.”



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Man cited for alleged wrong-way deadly crash

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Man cited for alleged wrong-way deadly crash


BOSTON, (WPRI) — A somerset man has been cited for allegedly causing a deadly wrong-way crash in Boston late Saturday night.

Just before midnight, troopers from the H9 Barracks were called for a report of a multi-vehicle crash on I-93 North before Exit 15A.

A preliminary investigation showed that the driver of a 2004 Cadillac Escalade, identified as 81-year-old Antone Carvalho, of Somerset, entered Route 93 North at Exit 15B and drove southbound in the northbound lanes.

Two vehicles, a Honda Odyssey and an Audi A4, attempted to avoid the Carvalho and crashed into each other.

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Four people in the Honda Odyssey, were taken to a Boston-area hospital for evaluation.

Shortly after the initial crash, police say Carvalho collided head-on with a Chevrolet Cruze.

Carvalho and the other driver were taken to Boston-area hospitals for their injuries

The driver of the Chevrolet Cruze, identified as a man in his 20’s from Haverhill, died from his injuries.

Carvalho will be issued a summons to appear in court at a later date.

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8 Picture-Perfect Main Streets In Massachusetts

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8 Picture-Perfect Main Streets In Massachusetts


Norman Rockwell painted Stockbridge so often that the real Main Street now looks like one of his canvases come to life. That is the trick these Massachusetts towns pull off. A whaling-era cobblestone lane on Nantucket and a Revolutionary common in Concord do the same thing in different accents. Each one packs its best landmarks into a few blocks you can cover on foot. The eight New England streets here all sit under 50,000 residents and earn their reputation the honest way.

Stockbridge

Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Fewer than 2,000 people live in Stockbridge, yet its Main Street may be the most recognizable in the state. Credit Norman Rockwell, who lived here and painted the view down the street so many times it lodged in the national memory. The white clapboard buildings, the old inns, and the big shade trees are all still right where he left them, and people still use them.

The Red Lion Inn has welcomed guests on this corner since 1773, and its long front porch is the street’s anchor in every sense. A short walk away, the Norman Rockwell Museum holds the largest collection of his work and even his relocated studio. Naumkeag adds a Gilded Age cottage with terraced gardens climbing the hillside. Come December, the town recreates Rockwell’s famous “Main Street at Christmas” scene with vintage cars parked along the curb, which is about as close as a real place gets to stepping into a painting.

Lenox

Downtown street in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Downtown street in Lenox, Massachusetts. Image credit Richard Cavalleri via Shutterstock

Edith Wharton built her dream house just outside Lenox, and the writer’s eye for proportion seems to have rubbed off on the whole town. The center is small enough to park once and walk, with bookshops, cafes, and galleries shoulder to shoulder under the trees. Under 10,000 people live here, and the place wears its Berkshire elegance lightly.

The Mount, Wharton’s 1902 estate, runs as a house museum and public garden and hosts readings and outdoor events all summer. Ventfort Hall, a Jacobean-style mansion built for a sister of J.P. Morgan, fills in more of the Gilded Age story. Just up the road, Tanglewood draws crowds every July and August as the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, so a quiet shopping street can be ten minutes from a world-famous concert lawn. Few towns this size balance that kind of culture against that little traffic.

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Concord

Main Street in the historic town center of Concord, Massachusetts.
Main Street in the historic town center of Concord, Massachusetts.

On April 19, 1775, the shot heard round the world was fired a short walk from where Concord shoppers now buy their morning coffee. That is the strange gift of this town. Its pretty village center sits below 20,000 residents, and its old houses, churches, and civic buildings look calm until you remember what happened among them.

Minute Man National Historical Park preserves the battle road and the fields where colonial militia turned back British regulars. Old North Bridge marks the spot itself, with Daniel Chester French’s Minute Man statue standing guard. Concord also raised more than its share of writers, and Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, where she wrote “Little Women,” still opens for tours. Two miles south, Walden Pond holds the woods Thoreau made famous, an easy swim or walk that closes the loop between the town’s history and its quieter ideas.

Marblehead

Marblehead, Massachusetts: Sites of historical homes and buildings in historical downtown district.
Marblehead, Massachusetts: Sites of historical homes and buildings in the historical downtown district. Dee Browning via Shutterstock

The streets in Marblehead’s Old Town were laid out for foot traffic and fishing nets, not cars, so they bend and narrow and dead-end at the water. The town tops 20,000 residents now, but the historic core feels far older and more intimate. Washington Street and the lanes around it run past brick sidewalks and preserved houses, with the harbor flashing into view between rooftops.

The Jeremiah Lee Mansion, a grand Georgian house built in 1768 for the wealthiest merchant in colonial Massachusetts, still keeps its original hand-painted English wallpaper. Old Burial Hill rises above town with weathered colonial gravestones and one of the best harbor views around. Abbot Hall, the brick town hall with the clock tower, houses the original “Spirit of ’76” painting. Walk the waterfront and the reason for the whole town becomes obvious. Marblehead grew up facing the sea, and it never turned away.

Newburyport

Downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts
Downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts. Image credit Heidi Besen via Shutterstock

Federal-era sea captains built their fortunes at the mouth of the Merrimack, and their three-story brick blocks still line the streets of downtown Newburyport. The Main Street feeling here spreads across several streets rather than one. Under 20,000 residents keep the center humming, with shops and restaurants filling old facades right down to the riverbank.

Market Square and State Street form the heart of it, a tight grid of brick that survived a great fire and a wave of 1970s urban renewal to come out the other side intact. The Custom House Maritime Museum, set in a granite 1835 building, tells the port’s seafaring story. Waterfront Park gives you a bench and a view of the boats. A few miles out on Plum Island, the Parker River refuge at Joppa Flats turns the same trip into prime birdwatching, so a downtown afternoon can end with herons instead of storefronts.

Rockport

Rockport, Massachusetts.
Rockport, Massachusetts. Editorial credit: Starmaro / Shutterstock.com.

A plain red fishing shack on a granite pier may be the most painted building in America, and it sits right in Rockport’s harbor. Locals call it Motif No. 1, after an art teacher who got tired of seeing his students paint it. The town runs under 10,000 residents and folds its best parts into a few tight blocks by the water.

Main Street leads to Bearskin Neck, a skinny peninsula crammed with galleries, candy shops, and lobster shacks that ends with the open Atlantic. Front Beach puts sand and water within a short stroll of the shops. The Shalin Liu Performance Center, opened in 2010, built a concert hall with a wall of glass behind the stage, so the ocean becomes the backdrop for a string quartet. You can wander from a storefront to a harbor view to a gallery without ever breaking stride.

Great Barrington

Rustic brick buildings along Railroad Street in the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Rustic brick buildings along Railroad Street in the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Editorial credit: Albert Pego / Shutterstock.com

Great Barrington wired the first downtown in the world lit entirely by alternating current, back in 1886, and the place has kept that forward lean ever since. Under 10,000 residents fill a center that feels genuinely busy, with restaurants, bookstores, and galleries spread along Main Street and Railroad Street. It looks like an old Berkshire town and behaves like a young one.

The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, a restored 1905 theater, books films, concerts, and live broadcasts year-round. The Housatonic River Walk threads a half-mile greenway along the water right behind Main Street, the work of volunteers who spent decades clearing a once-polluted bank. Just outside town, Monument Mountain offers a short climb to a quartzite ridge and a long view over the Housatonic River valley, the same trail Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne hiked together in 1850.

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Nantucket

Main Street in Nantucket, Massachusetts
Main Street in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Image credit Mystic Stock Photography via Shutterstock.

Whaling money built Nantucket’s Main Street, and the cobblestones laid to keep wagon wheels out of the mud are still there to rattle your suitcase. The island stays well under 50,000 year-round residents even at the height of summer. Brick sidewalks, weathered shingles, and window boxes give the downtown the texture of an old port rather than a new outdoor mall.

The Whaling Museum, set in an 1847 candle factory, explains how a small island once lit the lamps of the world, right down to a full sperm whale skeleton. Brant Point Lighthouse marks the harbor entrance and ranks among the most photographed beacons in New England. Straight Wharf keeps the working waterfront within steps of the shops, and the Oldest House, built in 1686, anchors the streetscape in the island’s first century. Every detail down to the gray shingles seems to point back to the same seafaring story.

Massachusetts Main Streets Worth Slowing Down For

What ties these eight together is not a shared look but a shared honesty. Stockbridge and Lenox lean on Berkshire culture, Concord carries the weight of 1775, and Great Barrington keeps reinventing itself. Marblehead, Newburyport, Rockport, and Nantucket all grew up facing salt water and never lost the habit. The best Main Streets here are not stage sets. They are working downtowns that happen to be worth a long, slow look.



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Battenfeld: AG Andrea Campbell’s errors sting Massachusetts voters

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Battenfeld: AG Andrea Campbell’s errors sting Massachusetts voters


No single person in Massachusetts bears more responsibility for denying voters the right to cast a ballot than inept Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

No rent control? Blame Campbell.

No state income tax cut? Blame Campbell.

No audit of the state Legislature? Blame Campbell.

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Again and again Campbell has screwed up or worse, been complicit, leaving Bay State voters without the ability to exercise their right to decide important issues.

No amount of fawning pieces in the Boston Globe or publicity-seeking lawsuits against President Trump can cover up that fact.

She is a disaster. Unfortunately we have to suffer through another four years of her bonehead decision-making because Republicans in Massachusetts are just as inept at fielding viable candidates.

Massachusetts voters had the best chance in two decades this fall to establish rent control with a referendum question capping rent increases at 5%. Polls showed the ballot question with a solid advantage.

But Campbell, a liberal Democrat, allowed language on the question giving exemptions from the rent limits to religious institutions, which in Massachusetts violates the Constitution. The Supreme Judicial Court voted unanimously to kick the referendum question off the ballot.

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This was not a case of political decision-making on Campbell’s part, since Democrats favored the rent control question. It was purely a rookie botch job, and a huge one at that, which will have major ramifications for renters, who will now be denied a much needed break from astronomical increases.

A simple reading of the Constitution should have caused Campbell to flag the question, and get the rent control advocates to strike the religious exemption. She admitted after she “got it wrong” — which is of no help to the renters in this state.

Apparently following the law, as Martin Short’s synchronized swimmer character would say, is not the Attorney General’s strong suit.

A similar error — or possibly an insidious political move — on Campbell’s part also blocked voters from getting a chance at lowering the state income tax from 5% to 4%.

The referendum question clearly had majority support, but was strongly opposed by Democrats like Campbell who argued it would have led to unconscionable cuts in social service programs to make up for the lost tax revenue.

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Campbell okayed fatally flawed language in the ballot question which again caused the SJC to punt it off the ballot. This one may not have been just a simple mistake, but a possible deliberate act by Campbell to poison the question.

Politics again played a role in Campbell’s moves around a 72% voter-approved legislative audit by Auditor Diana DiZoglio. By not enforcing the new law, Campbell is flagrantly keeping DiZoglio from auditing the books of the despised, free-spending Legislature.

Campbell — rather than do her job — will not represent DiZoglio in her efforts to secure the audit, but authorized her to seek outside counsel, which will cost millions.

So on one hand saying she’ll enforce the law, she’s done everything she can to block it.

So what does Campbell do exactly? She has sued the Trump administration 50 times already, on a pace to exceed even Gov. Maura Healey’s lawsuits against Trump back when she was AG.

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And she rarely ventures outside her Dartmouth, Mass. manse. Far from being the people’s lawyer, she stands against the people’s will.



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