Fatal Wakefield Crash Grim Reminder Of Work To Be Done

WAKEFIELD, MA — At Town Hall Wednesday evening, John Crisley and his Safe Streets Working Group were talking with DPW members about walkthroughs at a few key neighborhoods for bicycle and pedestrian issues. One of those areas was Main Street, from the Melrose line to Wakefield Center.

Unbeknownst to Crisley heading into the meeting, the Main Street area near the town line would be blocked off that same evening, flooded with blue and red police lights. A woman was struck by a truck, right around the corner from where Crisley lives. She died later that evening.

"It's a sobering reality when something happens like, literally like 500 feet from the home that we've owned for 20 years," Crisley, the co-chair of the Safe Streets Working Group, told Patch over the phone Thursday. "So it's literally in our backyard."

Not many details are publicly available about what happened. Wakefield police and the Middlesex District Attorney's office told Patch there was no additional information beyond a Wednesday night press release, which said the driver stayed on scene and no charges were filed. The investigation is ongoing.

What is known is a woman in her 60s was struck by a Nissan Frontier truck around 6:30 p.m. She was flown to the hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.

Regardless of the specifics of the crash, the Safe Streets Working Group is striving to keep pedestrians safe on the roads. According to its website, the group is made of Wakefield residents who "contribute their knowledge and vision to building a community that is friendly to walkers and bikers, as well as motor vehicles."

The group formed some 18 months ago. It's been pushing for bicycle and pedestrian improvements through design and traffic patterns they say make the community safer.

"It was kind of an organic thing where there were a lot of threads coming together with road design issues and safety and community development," Crisley said.

While not an official government entity, the group is not completely on the outside, either. Town Council Chair Julie Smith-Galvin has had a hand in the Safe Streets Working Group — the website can actually be found on her page.

"We've made good strides on trying to get some grant funding for safer streets," Smith-Galvin told Patch over the phone. "We still have a long way to go. We get a lot of feedback about sidewalk and safety and we are working very hard on all of that."

Main Street is, naturally, a very busy street. The corner at Hanson Street is where the popular Cibo Cafe & Bistro and the post office are.

"In these discussions about bicycle and pedestrian safety it's at the top of the list as one of the areas that we'd like to see improvements," Crisley said.

There are a number of traffic-calming safety measures at communities' disposal, once the funding and desire for improvement match up.

Crisley said one that could work here is what's known as a curb bumpout — a standing zone either right off the curb or where the curb bumps out where people can wait before crossing the street, shortening the distance to cross.

"Having bump outs and the flashing lights for pedestrian crossings narrows the sight lines for motorists," Crisley said. "So by narrowing the sight lines between bumpouts and signalized pedestrian crossings, it makes it safer for pedestrians to cross a busy street."

Crisley said the town has considered some of those changes, and that there's a need for them in some of the busier areas of Wakefield. And that's what the Safe Streets Working Group is there for — identifying potential solutions and pushing them across the finish line. (Anyone interested in learning more can email Crisley at jfcrisley@hotmail.com.)

In the meantime, Crisley has an easy suggestion to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers — everyone: Slow down when driving.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Wakefield Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.