[*BCM*] Fw: Emailing: S.E. News/Tremont St. Accident

[Theresa Mackin]

Man killed after being hit by truck | Articles | South End News
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                              Issue Date: 8/9/2007, Posted On: 8/8/2007 

                              Man killed after being hit by truck
                              Linda Rodriguez
                              lrodriguez at southendnews.com  
                                 
                                The scene of the accident: After striking Matos, the truck came to a stop in a pile of gravel.
                                 
                                  
                              A longtime South End resident was struck and killed by a pick-up truck being driven the wrong way down the driveway in front of the bank of stores along Tremont Street between East Berkeley and Herald streets around 10:50 a.m. Aug. 3. Raul Matos, 73, of Shawmut Avenue, died soon after being struck by the 1994 black Ford Ranger, near the intersection of East Berkeley and Tremont streets. The driver, whose name has not been released, was not arrested and has not been charged with a crime. 

                              "Homicide is working with accident reconstruction specialists to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident and what, if any, charges will be sought against the operator of the vehicle," Elaine Driscoll, Boston Police Department spokeswoman, said.
                              The downtown lane of Tremont Street was closed for hours Friday as homicide investigators collected evidence from the scene. 

                              "That was just a freak thing," said Steve Coombs, part owner of Community Bicycle Supply. The accident took place in front of Coombs's store. He said he heard the pick-up truck hit the other cars and came running out of his store to see the truck come to a stop when it plowed into a gravel pile near an NSTAR construction site on Tremont Street. He said he did not see the truck hit Matos. 

                              According to Coombs and other witnesses who also ran out of the bicycle shop when they heard the truck collide with other cars, the Ford Ranger was traveling the wrong way down the driveway, pinballing off cars parked in the driveway. The police report said that the Ranger collided with Matos, who was found by police lying face down in front of 482 Tremont St. Driscoll said that it appeared that Matos was actually on the sidewalk at the time he was struck. Witnesses told South End News that the truck hit Matos from behind, who was either walking or riding his bicycle, and dragged the bicycle several feet.

                              Kaluwa Kieta, who was inside Community Bicycle at the time of the incident, ran outside after hearing the truck colliding with the parked cars. Once on the street, she said, she saw Matos lying 25 feet from his bicycle, bleeding from a gash to his head. She checked him for a pulse, found it briefly, but it faded as Matos closed his eyes, she said. Matos was transported to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:25 a.m., according to the police report. 

                              Another witness, Tee Kieta, said she noticed the truck first traveling on Tremont Street towards downtown, driving past the NSTAR construction site in the downtown-bound lane at the corner of Tremont and East Berkeley streets. At some point, the truck turned the wrong way down the driveway in front of the bank of shops on the block between East Berkeley and Herald streets. The driver hit two parked cars in the driveway; the front, driver's side wheel and part of its front axle came off the second car. The force of the collision also pushed the rear end of the second car up and onto the hood of the car parked behind it.

                              The truck also clipped a third car that was driving the correct way down the driveway, forcing the driver of that car to veer left onto and over the median separating Tremont Street from the driveway in an effort to get out of the truck's path. It is unclear from the police report and from witness accounts whether the woman hit the other cars or the victim first. 

                              Coombs said that two police officers on detail at the construction site "had to jump out of the way of the truck," as the pick up came barreling toward them. The truck then slammed into a three-foot pile of gravel from the construction site, in the downtown-bound lane of Tremont Street.

                              "I heard a big crash and bang, and the truck went slamming into the pile," Coombs said. 

                              Tee Kieta said that the woman got out of the car and told police that the truck wouldn't stop. "She said she couldn't stop the truck," she said, adding at the woman said, "Oh my God, I didn't mean to do that, he came out of nowhere."

                              Driscoll said Tuesday that it appeared that the woman had lost control of the truck. Witnesses at the scene who saw her talking to police officers said the woman did not appear to be intoxicated. 

                              A service for Matos, a Puerto Rican native who had lived in Villa Victoria and on Shawmut Avenue for decades, was held on Wednesday at the Holy Cross Cathedral. 



                             
                        
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                             
                       
                         
                 
                       
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