Northborough native killed in Washington, D.C., accident

July 8, 2008 07:48 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

A young woman from Northborough just starting her career in Washington, D.C., was killed this morning when she collided with a garbage truck while riding her bicycle to work.

(Middle East Institute Photo)

Alice Swanson, 22, was pronounced dead at a Washington hospital after she was struck at the intersection of 20th Street and R Street NW. She was riding westbound on R Street when a garbage truck traveling in the same direction took a right and apparently didn’t see her, said Officer Joshua Aldiva, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesman.

A 2007 Amherst College graduate, Swanson was fluent in Spanish and Arabic. She recently completed an internship program at The Middle East Institute, a D.C.-based think tank. Passionate about international affairs and travel, she studied abroad in India and Nicaragua during college. The Institute expressed its sadness at Swanson’s death, calling her “a true spirit of friendship” in a memorial statement on their website.

"Alice's intelligence and passion for learning was rivaled only by her great warmth and friendliness,” Adam Mendelson, Swanson’s former boss and the managing editor of the organization’s Middle East Journal publication, said in a statement. “I can't ever recall her without a smile on her face.”

Swanson’s family is left with a deep loss.

“She is so energetic and enthusiastic. She always wants to explore or travel,” said her father, Brian, reached by telephone in Northborough, where Alice was born and raised. “She’s got a room full of maps here, world maps, and things like that. She wanted to travel.”

“I just feel that she had so many things that she wanted to do -- to help people. Now it’s not going to happen.”

Swanson had gone to work for the International Research and Exchanges Board, a nonprofit that promotes international education, according to the Institute.

The truck was owned by Sterling, Va.-based KMG Hauling Inc. Company owner Hugo Garcia told The Washington Post today that his company was investigating the accident. Police identified the driver as Marco Rosendo Flores Fuentes, 46, of Falls Church, Va. No charges have been filed. The accident is under investigation by the Metropolitan Police Major Crash Investigation Unit.

John Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com