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Two men driving motorcycles in Dennis early Sunday morning were involved in a crash, according to The Boston Globe. According to a statement from the Dennis Police Department, a 35-year-old Hyannis man died and another man was injured when they lost control of their motorcycles. The two were driving east on Route 28 at about 1 a.m. when they hit a utility pole and were ejected forward into the street.

One of the operators, Edward Kelley, 43, was taken to Barnstable Municipal Airport and then transported to a Boston hospital. His condition is still unknown. The second man, whom police are not identifying at the moment, was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital.
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Crashes involving two State Police troopers occurred on two separate roadways in Massachusetts today. Both officers managed to avoid injury in the incidents, which took place on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Newton and on Route 24 in Randolph, according to State Police. So far, only one of the drivers is being charged.

The first crash occurred on Route 24 around 1:20 a.m. after troopers had identified someone driving the wrong way on the highway. When one tried setting up stop sticks across the roadway, his vehicle and several others were struck. In this case, the trooper was uninjured and the occupants of the other cars involved sustained only minor injuries. However, the driver charged with causing the crash was arrested for drunk driving and reckless operation of a motor vehicle and is slated to be arraigned today in Quincy District Court.
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Christopher Elicier, a resident of Wareham, Mass., was killed Saturday night after his vehicle was struck head-on by another vehicle traveling in the wrong direction. Elicier was traveling on Interstate 495 in Wareham late Saturday night when another motorist, Phendy Pamphile, 26, of Brockton, driving in the opposite direction collided with him at about 10:20 p.m. According to State Police, Elicier was ejected from his vehicle, a 2012 Hyundai Veloster coupe, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Pamphile sustained a serious leg injury and was trapped in his vehicle immediately following the crash. The Jaws of Life were used to remove him and he was transported to Tobey Hospital in Wareham, but he was later moved to Rhode Island Hospital. According to the hospital, Pamphile was listed in critical condition as of Sunday afternoon. Neither of the drivers was wearing a seatbelt.
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Just over one month ago, several Boston University students studying in New Zealand were involved in a crash that killed three and injured four others. According to police, Stephen Houseman of Massapequa, N.Y. was driving the group of students in a rented minivan when he drifted to the side of the road and then rolled the van when he tried to correct course.

Houseman’s attorney had requested that he be discharged without conviction due to concerns over the impact it would have on his career, and victims supported a discharge as well, citing the fact that Houseman was sensitive to their losses. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to all charges, including three counts of careless driving causing death and four of careless driving causing injury.

On May 12, Eastern Standard Time, he was convicted and fully discharged. The judge ruled that he was “law-abiding” but “lost vigilance on the road.” He received no jail time but was ordered to pay court costs and barred from driving in New Zealand for six months, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice.
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A 56-year-old man was crossing the Bourne Bridge this morning when he lost control of his bicycle and fell onto the roadway and in the path of a tractor trailer. According to State Police and Bourne police, the man was heading northbound, off of Cape Cod, at about 5:40 a.m. when the truck driver, traveling in the opposite direction, saw him lose control, possibly due to strong winds rushing over the bridge.

Firefighters were able to remove the victim from underneath the wheels of the truck’s cab, during which time the bridge was closed off completely. According to Bourne Police Lieutenant Richard Silvestro, the truck driver “saw that the bicyclist appeared to be out of control” and attempted to avoid hitting him, but he ultimately went under the rear wheels and became trapped there. The man was then removed and flown to a nearby hospital where he was treated for “serious, but non-life threatening, injuries.” The bridge was closed in both directions for about an hour.
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Nearly 73,000 Rio small cars have been recalled by Kia Motors America in order to fix a problem with the front-passenger air bag. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the issue stems from a sensor mat in the seat which has the potential to crack and fail to detect whether a child is sitting in the seat. In the event of a crash, this could cause the air bag to inflate and injure the child.

Safety standards currently call for cars to be designed in such a way that their air bags will not inflate with a child in the passenger seat. The recall currently applies to cars built between February 20, 2005 and December 9, 2007 (or the 2006 to 2008 model years). Kia has said that it doesn’t know of any injuries that have resulted from this problem, but that it will replace the sensors for free beginning in July.
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The death of Boston College graduate student and Seattle native Kelsey Rennebohm remains under investigation, but officials have reportedly identified a Route 39 MBTA bus as being potentially involved in the incident, according to The Boston Globe. Rennebohm, who died Friday in a bicycle accident, was studying at the Boston College Lynch School of Education.

Little information has been released regarding the circumstances of her death, which was the result of an accident occurring around 10:25pm at the intersection of Forsyth Street and Huntington Avenue, according to Transit and Boston Police. Although the investigation is still being conducted, authorities say that police have questioned the bus driver but have not yet brought any charges.
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A school van carrying special-needs students was involved in a crash Wednesday afternoon in Chelmsford, MA. Police arrived promptly at the scene of the accident, which occurred at the Drum Hill Square rotary shortly after 3 p.m., but stated that the cause was not immediately known. However, they believe one of the vehicles may have run a red light.

The van was carrying two special-needs students, reportedly from the nearby Lighthouse School in Chelmsford, and the car with which it collided was carrying two teenagers. All were taken to nearby hospitals for precautionary reasons, Chelmsford police Lieutenant Jim Spinney said, though their injuries were thought to be minor.

Rotaries, despite being designed to improve traffic flow and reduce vehicle crashes, have come under criticism in Massachusetts as being poorly designed and accident-prone. A study of 23 rotaries, done by Ryerson Polytechnic University and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, found that they can reduce fatal accidents by 90 percent and all accidents by 40 percent. However, New England’s traffic circles, most of which were implemented to accommodate higher volumes of traffic, are larger and more dangerous than modern roundabouts. Of the roughly 100 rotaries in Massachusetts, 17 appear on MassHighway’s list of the 1,000 Most Hazardous Intersections.
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I know-we couldn’t believe it either. Haven’t most of us been nearly hit by a crazy driver zooming ahead on the narrow, winding Boston streets? Or witnessed such a driver? Or been that driver himself? In a shocking a recent survey from Men’s Health magazine, Boston was ranked third out of 100 cities in the U.S. with the least dangerous drivers. If this is the case, pondering the drivers in other cities is a scary thought.

The least “crash-prone” city was St. Paul, Minnesota, and second-place was awarded to Lincoln, Nebraska. Providence, Rhode Island, was ranked 95 on the list.

Men’s Health apparently came to their conclusions via a combined calculation of the following statistics: rate of fatal crashes, percentage of deaths involving alcohol, speeding or hit-and-run, rate of seat belt use, cell phone laws while driving, and number of years between accidents.

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A tractor trailer rollover around 5:30pm on Monday night in Freetown, MA-located about 12 miles from Fall River-seriously injured the trailer driver and left the driver of a second vehicle with minor injuries. The truck driver was traveling on Route 24 Southbound near Exit 8 and had been carrying seafood. It apparently tipped over and landed on the dividing guard-rails across the highway median. The driver of the second vehicle, a 2001 Honda accord, thankfully escaped with minor injuries, but his car had to be dug out from the wood with special equipment.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, rollover accidents have a higher fatality rate than other types of crashes-accounting for about 33% of all passenger vehicle fatalities.Although convenient, tractor trailers, like the one involved in this accident, may be more prone to rollovers due to their height. Tall vehicles (trucks, buses, vans) have a high center of gravity, lessening their stability, and speeding, sudden turns, and bad weather can lessen their stability ever further. Other causes of rollovers may be driver fatigue, equipment failure, or negligent maintenance of the vehicle.

The cause of the Freetown accident is still unknown. However, there have been no reports of speeding or other foul play.

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