Dump Truck Hits Cyclist in Cambridge at Mass. Ave. Bridge

Photo by Chris Sweeney

A 10-wheel dump truck struck a cyclist at approximately 8:30 this morning on the Cambridge end of the Mass Ave Bridge. The cyclist, a middle-aged black woman, clutched her forearm, but was conscious, talking, and did not appear to have any life-threatening injuries as first responders propped her up on a stretcher and moved her toward an ambulance.

“You could hear the crush,” said Lisa Tegler, a Boston resident who was walking to work and saw the accident unfold. A group of cyclists, according to Tegler, had bottlenecked at the red light of the intersection and were positioned next to the truck. As the light changed and everyone started rolling along, one biker’s back wheel got sucked into the wheels of the turning dump truck. “He was going very slowly,” Tegler said of the truck driver.

The driver of the truck, which had a large “Jake’s Trucking” logo on the passenger door, declined to comment.

Bobby Anastasiades, owner of Burlington-based Jake’s Trucks, said his company has been working on the ongoing construction of the bike and running path alongside Memorial Drive. He usually has one to two trucks down there a day to help out with short hauls. Anastasiades, who is on the site most days, said that the car, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic near the intersection is “crazy.”

A Cambridge Police officer at the scene said the accident occurred in State Police jurisdiction. State police did not immediately respond to request for comment, and a trooper on the scene was collecting witness statements.

The accident is the latest in a spat of collisions involving cyclists and vehicles. Last month a 27-year-old woman was killed in Inman Square after reportedly swerving out of the way of a car door only to be fatally hit by a truck. In May, a cyclist was hit by a beer delivery truck on Mass. Ave, just a few blocks up the road from this morning’s accident.

Michelle Wu, president of the Boston City Council, recently opined in the Globe that the car-bike conflict in Greater Boston is coming to a head and needs to be addressed. “In the first four months of 2016, 8 people were killed and 307 injured from crashes on Boston streets, up 20 percent compared to the same period in 2015. Last month, another fatal crash in Cambridge underscored the urgency of VisionZero and making our streets safe for all,” Wu wrote.