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profits before peopel
How many deaths before we fight back against companies squeezing trucks too big into our city?
It was a freekin' loading dock!
What kind of truck do you expect to use with a dock up 50"? Do you think a big hospital uses only a little bit of linen and food?
A better question is what was wrong with the guy in a hoodie such that he could not hear the annoying beeping sounds every truck makes backing up? Are loading docks the place for deaf and blind people or stupid people with Ipods to be? How are people unaware of trucks and trains such that they get hit?
Don't blame trucks, blame natural selection.
Yeah, what possible reason
Yeah, what possible reason could the elderly or people with mobility or hearing impairments have for being near a hospital, of all places?!
~
You should get out of your car more often
You, know, get out and actually walk around and experience the urban streetscape? Sights, sounds, people ... Not just the mall and its parking lots?
You might then know that:
1) people do have hearing and other sensory impairments aside from the walking-with-headphones
2) Sometimes the urban noisescape is pretty intense and masks specific important noises
3) Truck drivers aren't always unimpaired or law-abiding or patiently yielding of rights-of-way to pedestrians
AND
4) Trucks are some of the most ill-maintained vehicles in the area - there may not have been any "every truck" "beeping sounds". If the person were sight impaired - and there are plenty of sight-impaired people in that area and in the world outside of a car who do not need your permission to be out walking where others walk - a LACK of a beeping noise due to poor maintenance could be fatal.
So ... it could be a simple WWHUA and "natural selection", but it could also be a DWHUA on the part of the truck driver or a (GASP!) faulty vehicle.
Or (GASP) none of swiirly's
Or (GASP) none of swiirly's f-ing business (DOUBLE GASP).
Neat Anon Trick
go back and forth to the site and clikey the + as many times as you liek
I see yo kno that 1?
So ... it could be a simple WWHUA and "natural selection", but i
FYI. The truck backs up EVERYDAY mon- fri at 1:30pm to drop laundry off at the building at the top of the hill. The driver is very good at his job & the truck is properly maintained with all signals and sounds in working order of which I can attest to daily as I work at St.E's in MOB.
What happened is a TRAGIC ACCIDENT of which that driver has to live with for the rest of his life through no fault of his own.
spare me the "live for the rest of his life with it" shit
The victim DOESN'T GET TO LIVE.
The victim's family has to deal with his death.
You've got all sorts of sympathy for the driver. Find some sympathy for the dead victim and their family.
New: the guy was 80 years old
So, this isn't natural selection - that applies to people in the gene pool and potential parents. Age wasn't available earlier.
Loading docks are typically in the back of buildings away from high-traffic areas. Traffic in the sense of vehicular and pedestrian. Train tracks are likewise designed to have reduced exposure/access by pedestrians and road vehicles, yet people wander there too and die. The victim should have been near entrances with the walkways, landscaping and benches. Not near the loading dock, trash bins, O2 and gas facilities etc. If the guy was unaware of his environment, he should have been with someone. Unlikely that he got to the hospital on his own.
Truck and bus drivers have limited rear and side visibility. Its not their fault when people are ignorant of that.
so the onus is on the victim, not the driver? Charming.
"Truck and bus drivers have limited rear and side visibility. Its not their fault when people are ignorant of that."
NO, it is the fault of the driver when THEY are not cognizant of THEIR limited visibility and failing to drive carefully.
Jesus christ, could you be more victim-blaming? I suppose you think rape victims should be more careful about how they dress, huh?
Suburban != Urban
Ah yes - and you know the area? Ever work or live around there? Spend much time there? Your lack of understanding of the possibility of multi-use space in a tightly packed zone is most amusing. This ain't Lahey Clinic Burlington Campus. It ain't Texas or North Dakota, either.
So, yeah, maybe he was impaired by age or pride or whatever ... maybe he was in the wrong place ... maybe somebody should have been with him ... but it is also possible that the loading dock area superimposed a pedestrian right of way that cuts off several blocks of walking and/or the driver wasn't paying attention and/or (even more likely IMHE) had a defective vehicle.
Get a life (or at the very least, a brain) Grrl-friend
Ok. So let's ASSume it's all the vehicle driver's fault. That doesn't make the victim any less dead. The moral of the story is you have to be responsible for watching your own ass. No one else is gonna do it for you. Stop acting like a bunch of brain-dead, crybaby morons and take a bit of personal responsibility.
Personal Responsibility?
I do know the area.
The pictures look like the area about 200' climb from the street. Pedestrians do not take short cuts climbing up the hill, especially 80 year old ones. They don't just drift in off the street and climb 200' either.
The guy should have had someone watching him, and many of you seem to need nannies too. BTW, hot coffee is often hot and can burn you even if the cup does not have a printed warning. Truck drivers have limited rear visibility, just like those of us without eyes in the back of our heads, so you just might have to watch out for yourselves sometimes. I guess some of you ride the T just so you can sue them someday if the vehicle crashes or stops suddenly.
You don't know the area well enough
If you are coming to the hospital from the Comm Ave and Washington St area (where there are multiple senior centers), the fastest way into the hospital is to walk up the Monastery Road driveway to the employee lot area and take the stairs/elevator down to the pair of crosswalks at the intersection where the victim was struck.
Which is exactly what the NOT
Which is exactly what the NOT 80 year old man did. He is said to be "known by the commonwealth" as the police report states but they have yet to release his identity.
ahhh, the old coffee thing
McDonalds was serving coffee at a temperature that well exceeded common industry practices.
The victim, who suffered extensive burns on her genitals - asked for medical expenses already incurred, anticipated expenses (about a fifth of the incurred expenses), and lost wages. It was less than $20k, half of which were already-incurred medical expenses.
McD's refused. The jury awarded her $3M, most of it in punitive damages, mostly because McD's were complete dicks to her despite her perfectly reasonable request.
Google Earth uber alles
No, Mark-K you don't "know the area;" you know the Google Maps/Earth imagery of the area which you always refer to in your continual defense of all things run by a combustion engine. When you say "the guy" needed someone watching him, are you referring to the driver or the pedestrian? There's a whole lot more of a leap to make the statement that the victim "needed a nanny" than to say that the driver of a semi in a cramped area needed a spotter to help him back in. But of course that doesn't fit the "four wheels good, two legs bad" spewage that you continually spout, on the backs of others' tragedies and misfortunes. You're reprehensible and boring.
This was an accident and a horrible thing for the family of this man during the holiday season. Angelica's does industrial laundry services for most all the hospitals in the area and runs tractor trailers back and forth all over the city. They are huge trucks - don't know if smaller panel trucks would be viable for the amount of linens and uniforms they're delivering, but maybe if these deliveries were made in the evenings there would be fewer opportunities for these types of accidents. And fewer very large trucks filling the roads with additional traffic during the day. And it also is a horrible thing for the driver of that truck as well.
I was there 6 times in 2 months
and going again this afternoon. All visits were taking friends, not for me. Don't ASSume people just sit in Mom's basement and make virtual visits.
The spaces are tight with poor pedestrian accommodations and crosswalk locations.
Even Menino got poor supervision during his hospital stay - he fell, suffering a spinal fracture and infection that he did not go in the hospital with. These are dangerous places. Many more people die in hospitals from accidents and catching infections than die on roads. Where is the outcry? Makes for boring news video, so nobody cares or goes after murders who don't wash their hands.
Loading Dock
Trucks have to back across a crosswalk to use it. Go look.
What an asshole comment
You should consider shoving your natural selection up your pretentious Arlington anus.
this was not a loading dock
this was not a loading dock incident, it is a driveway, where cars, ambulances, and delivery trucks compete with pedestrians for the right of way. i don't understand why he backs up the complete roadway when no other truck does this. if i saw that happening, i would be frightened for my life.
OMG
All high capacity trucks, say over 20 cubic feet, should be banned. Where's are leadership on this?
sprinter van
550 cubic feet and more than TWO TONS of cargo capacity.
http://www.mbsprinterusa.com/sprinter/cargo-van/sp...
20 cubic feet is one third the cargo capacity of your average full-size station wagon. Good job, anon.
If a hospital has to have more frequent laundry deliveries but pedestrians aren't endangered by said deliveries, the so be it. People before profits.
Hey douche anon.... I think
Hey douche anon....
I think the previous anon was being facetious.
Signed,
Non-facetious anon
Try delivering ...
Some hospital beds, MRI machine, X-Ray machines, CAT scan machines, a weekend's worth of food to a hospital without a loading dock. Now I suppose there should be no hospitals only clinics in every neighborhood, so they don't need loading docks.
this truck wasn't delivering hospital beds or CTs
It was delivering laundry, which fits just fine in a vehicle that isn't 50 feet long.
St E's layout not pedestrian OR truck friendly
It's built into and on a very steep hill. I was actually walking there not too long ago. I have full mobility and all my senses, usually. :)
I had to cross garage entrances and dock approaches.
I can see an elderly person getting into a bad spot there.
However, that doesn't absolve driver- extra caution should be used in environments like that.
Perhaps the hospital should have personnel backing the trucks in.
As for sprinter vans, I'm all for them, especially when they're making multiple stops in the urban core.
Not sure they're the solution here though. How many more sprinters would be making trips and backing up to supply a hospital?
They have blind spots as well.
RIP to the deceased and condolences t his family.