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Mass. Ave. bridge shut as cars collide head on
By bostonzest on Wed, 12/01/2010 - 6:04pm
A head-on collision at rush hour on the Mass. Ave. Bridge left one dead and created massive traffic problems.
Boston traffic on Mass.. Ave towards Cambridge is being detoured down Beacon Street, with police saying the bridge will be shut for "the foreseeable future."
Other streets in the area are also congested and the BU bridge is also heavy traffic.
Boston police are being sent to key intersections to prevent drivers gridlocking the cross streets.
The MBTA has numerous bus alerts due to traffic
http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/transit_updates/?t...
"Diversion on the Route 01 Due to automobile accident on the Mass Ave. Bridge. The bridge has been closed in both directions. Connections can be made on Mass Ave. at Vassar St. Cambridge and on Mass Ave. at Commonwealth Ave. Boston."
7:36 PM: police say they will open the bridge in about half an hour.
8:08 PM: The Bridge is open with traffic moving in both directions.
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Comments
complete fustercluck
Forseeable future?!?! The entire bridge is shut down. Traffic is a mess for a mile in each direction on all the connecting roads.
The collision was more than an hour ago on a major artery for two cities, you would think they could at least try to open the bridge to 1-2 lanes of traffic by now. I understand they have to investigate, but come on...how long does it take to take your pictures, spraypaint markers, and clear the road?! Come back at 2am when tens of thousands of people don't have somewhere to be.
Oh poor darling, your commute
Oh poor darling, your commute home has been delayed by 15, maybe 20 minutes. Woe is you.
I just walked from MIT for three miles
I worked late last night, worked all day, went to an appointment, and when the #1 bus stopped at MIT because the bridge had *just* closed down, I walked an hour to cover three miles to get home. Granted, the temperature was mild, and the rain could've been worse, but I was not a very happy camper.
BTW, the accident involved a late model Mercedes sedan which was totally decimated in the front, both airbags deployed, and the other vehicle was a cab with a significant dent in the driver's side front panel. It was bad.
I'm going to be that person...
and point out in a thread about a horrific death that "decimate" doesn't mean what you think it does.
no, actually, worse
Try a 10 minute bus ride turning into an hour (not so much fun when you're standing), and the bus getting detoured so badly that it takes you another 45 minutes to backtrack, on foot, in the rain, making for a grand total of two hours.
People couldn't possibly have important responsibilities, appointments, friends to meet, places to go before they close, right? Right, it's just us being selfish dickwads about something we have absolutely no control over.
Someone died. That sucks, truly. But there's nothing anyone can do about it, certainly not the thousands of people who ended up stuck in traffic. Keeping them stuck in traffic doesn't honor the victim and pointing out that the police can't efficiently handle something this simple doesn't denigrate the victim.
In fact, all it does is fuck things up for anyone else that might need emergency services anywhere in the area. Wouldn't it have sucked if someone needed police, fire, or ambulance service anywhere within a quarter mile or so of the bridge, or anywhere on Beacon Street (which was gridlocked), etc?
Take the photos, bag+tag the evidence, mark the pavement, clear the scene.
I'm gonna go out on a limb
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, yes - you are a total dickwad. Tell me, did you go to the cops and EMTs and give them your sage advice as they were extricating the bodies from the wreckage? 'Come on, you idiots, chop, chop', or something like that? I'm sure they were quite unaware they were preventing you from meeting that friend or getting to the place that was about to close, and that they were not 'bagging and tagging' fast enough - good grief, this is not a Rambo film! These guys have a hard enough job doing performing an accident investigation in the pouring rain, but I guess they're being a bit too cautious and thorough for your taste! You answered your own question when you said '...there's nothing anyone can do about it' - that's exactly right. It's out of any one's control. Therefore, I advise you to grow up and mature enough to have enough grace to realize there are worst things that can happen to a person than being late. I would love to hear your position on funeral processions as well. My God, what a nasty piece of work you are.
Seriously, I'm but one of the
Seriously, I'm but one of the most cynical, selfish, son-of-a-bitch, bastard commenters that frequents this site. And I have this to say: Go to bed, would you please?
Do you have any idea what it takes to create chain of custody for evidence? Wait, what's that? Your entire evidence gathering knowledge is based the 43 minute serial fiction of Blah & Order or CSI: Podunk?
Ya, it doesn't happen in 20 minutes. Not only will the officers and responding emergency people have to account in a report for their actions, they may have to do it again 8 or 10 months later, under oath, in a court of law.
So kindly step off with your (cowardly anonymous) indignation over an MBTA bus ride that was delayed. You got a wee bit wet. Boo. Fucking. Hoo.
Since you're an anonymous coward, I can't tell: are you a boy pussy cat or a girl pussy cat? Ya, grow a pair of something and dry yourself off. It's just water.
Besides, you ride the fucking T. You should be used to delays.
Worse than that!
How about a 12 hour shift getting extended another 2 hours? There I was on my last route of the day driving up Mass Ave towards the river when I get the radio report on an accident on the bridge. My dispatch tells me I've got to detour down Beacon Street towards Kenmore...at rush hour?? My new route means I have to take the BU Bridge...which is down to one lane and under construction...at rush hour??
I don't even make it past Symphony before the traffic jam begins. Everyone else around me doesn't know why we're in a 2-mile jam and all of the cross streets keep getting pissed off when I get trapped in the intersections...AND we're not even to the detour yet, so I *still* have to make all of my stops...and NOBODY wants to let me back in every time I have to bench the bus! I finally get onto Beacon and my route computer's showing me already 30 minutes delayed. Meanwhile, everyone on the bus now knows damn well that we're being detoured after they could see the mess outside the windows...but they're getting restless. They should have gotten off and walked at my last stop, but they balked at a little rain.
Comm Ave outbound is a mess at this time of day, but what choice did dispatch have? I couldn't go all the way down to the Salt'n'Peppah Shakah, I wouldn't fit on Storrow, and there's only so many bridges across the Charles.
NOW, I've got this guy ranting in my ear about how he's an hour delayed and wants to get off to walk BACK to Mass Ave. FINE, BUDDY, I don't need the hassle, GO!...honestly, I want to join him. Let the next guy finish this messed up route.
No, I mean, I know someone died and all, but how does making me stay on this bus driving a bunch of ungrateful bastards around who can't see out past their own rectal sphincter honor the victim? Right?
Oh, and I was late getting home so my wife's dinner was cold and in the fridge. Cold...and in the fridge. Just like the victim. I know, right?
PS - anon...go die in a fire. This work of fiction was to illustrate that no matter how bad you myopically think your day was...I'm sure in the process of pissing about it, you made someone else's worse. Congratulations on contributing to the problem. Douchebag.
Why don't you just get a
Why don't you just get a bike? I was delayed all of 60 seconds because of the crash going from Central Square to Northeastern over the Mass Ave bridge.
PS, you *are* a selfish, mean person.
Curious. I had no problems at all.
Of course, I was on the Red Line crossing the Charles each way.
Wow, poor you. Did you miss
Wow, poor you. Did you miss the part about there being a fatality? So sad how inconvenienced you were.
I hope you never get stuck in
I hope you never get stuck in a terrible traffic jam when you have to get somewhere important, like a hospital.
Oh well, since you had to get somewhere important...
Oh no, wait, you didn't have to get anywhere important, your hypothetical strawman did. YOU just had to bitch about the tragedy of your grand inconvenience. Cry me a river and then jump in it.
If it were that important
lights and sirens would be available to help you get there.
There's only so much lights
There's only so much lights and sirens can do when traffic is stopped solid. It's far better not to have the traffic jam in the first place.
Way to totally miss the point
Again, if you need to be somewhere immediately because it's a matter of life and death, emergency vehicles will generally find a way to get to you. If it's not a matter of life and death, then STFU and deal, because the matter that was sadly actually a matter of life and death takes precedence.
Between this comment and some
Between this comment and some of the tweets following the Kendall Square suicide by train, further proof that for some people, the sun rises and sets over their own arse.
Finn, the Kendall Square train accident
may not have been a suicide. http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1817605195...
insensitive, horrible, monsters.
People are dead, and all you can think about is your commute. You're everything wrong with the world. Congrats.
Forgetting Something?
Perhaps those who think the traffic jams are a "minor inconvenience" should be awarded a rethink.
Traffic jams are not just inconvenient: Traffic jams cause more accidents and some of these accidents kill more people.
Every backup - particularly a non-routine backup - is a time bomb for more accidents. The more accidents there are, the more injuries and fatalities there are.
I don't know if the police procedures and the delays around here are justified or not. What I do know is that many states, cities, and counties have policies in place to direct detours in a planned and efficient manner (MA clearly not one of them) and to clear accidents as soon as possible (State Police have a system in place on the limited access roads) to prevent more people from being injured and killed in the aftermath.
It is sad and horrible that somebody died on the roads. We as taxpayers and citizens do, however, have a right to question whether the police are creating additional risks of more people dying due to their road closure and detour direction policies.
When I die, I hope there's no
When I die, I hope there's no traffic jam as a result. And if someone I know is killed in a car accident, I hope the road is reopened as soon as it's safe to do so.
mass ave bridge fatality
To all you complainers, I am one of the nurses of the wonderful woman who was killed in the Mass Ave bridge accident on 12/01.So as you complain about your tough commute home, think of all of us, staff and patients, who mourn that body being pulled out of the wreckage, and consider yourself the luckiest person out there. This was a woman who fought horrific diseases daily with more grace and dignity then you will know.She commuted daily from Cambridge to be with people who loved her. So the next time you're tempted to moan about the little annoyances in life, think about this tiny little woman with the big soul,put it in perspective,and try to have some grace.
Mass Ave Bridge fatality
I didn't realize that bike lanes were installed on this bridge during summer until I read these comments. What's that take up--3 feet on each side for a decrease in total lane width of 6 feet? (I'm guessing.) That doesn't leave drivers with much room for error as the lanes were tight to begin with. Does anyone know the cause of the accident? Speed a factor? (Probably yes based on condition of the cars.) The cab must have had no place to go with the car coming at him. Can't bicyclists walk their bikes over the bridge and leave road width for the cars. Isn't this bridge a key part of Boston's evacuation route? We just got a taste of what that scenario would be like.
Bicycle lanes were originally
Bicycle lanes were originally installed on the bridge in 1898.
There is plenty of room on that bridge - almost everyone speeds there is so much room, endangering all road users.
Bike lanes on Mass. Ave. bridge
I wasn't around in 1898, but there were no bike lanes on the bridge in 1975-79 when I lived in Back Bay and commuted across it daily to MIT. Back then, most cyclists used the sidewalks, causing many near-collisions with pedestrians.
The bridge has had bike lanes for at least the last 15 years, maybe 20. They do not interfere with car travel in any way, and they keep bikes off the sidewalks and on the road where they belong.
You could push your car over the bridge
Why not? If you can't keep your car in the lane, you increase your margin of safety by ... SLOWING DOWN. Otherwise, stop driving. You ain't up to the task.
Some of us geezercyclists remember when that bridge was down to one lane each direction due to the usual sort of attention to maintenance seen in these parts. The bridge ran much more smoothly then, IMHO. Then it was rebuilt and reopened with little regard for the heavy pedestrian traffic that the span carries. The sidewalks on that bridge do not accommodate bike traffic and pedestrian traffic safely when put together. That's been true since the bridge went BACK to two travel lanes and the speeding trouble started.
pop quiz, masshole
Isn't this bridge a key part of Boston's evacuation route?
And in the event of a major disaster, guess which is going to be the fastest, most reliable form of transportation?