Fiery accident kills one, injures seven near Coolidge Corner

Woman pulled from car that was engulfed in flames

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff  |  June 20, 2008

BROOKLINE - A 79-year-old man was killed and seven others were injured yesterday in a fiery crash in Coolidge Corner, police said.

Five of the injured were children, aged 10 months to 14 years old. Another victim, a 52-year-old woman who was not identified, was in critical condition last night at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, police said.

Police did not identify the man who died. He had been taken to Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center.

The five children and the adult with them in one vehicle were all taken to Children's Hospital, and nearly all them were released last night.

The accident happened at about 5 p.m. at Babcock and Harvard streets, said police Captain John O'Leary.

Police are looking into speed as a possible factor.

The crash occurred when the elderly man, who was driving a maroon Honda Odyssey minivan southbound on Harvard Street, struck an illegally parked Lexus SUV near the intersection of Harvard and Babcock streets, police said. The impact caused the Lexus, in which the 52-year-old injured woman sat in the driver's seat, to roll over several times and travel about 100 feet down Harvard Street.

The minivan then struck a double-parked SUV, which had the adult and five children in it.

The Lexus burst into flames. Rescuers, while the vehicle was still on fire, cut open the roof to pull the woman out.

O'Leary said local residents and store employees raced to help the injured in the moments after the accident.

Rowena Delrosario, a teller at the nearby Citizens Bank, saw the crash. "I heard a big, loud noise like a big bomb," she said.

A Boston fire station is only a block away from the accident scene.

"I was praying they could come right over," said Delrosario. Rescuers arrived quickly, she said.

Mark Miller of Brookline was walking to pick up his daughter at an afterschool program.

"I heard a screech, a thump, a scream," he said. "Very quickly after impact there were flames."

Looking at the crushed vehicles against the backdrop of the neon sign of the nearby Coolidge Corner Theatre as the investigation wore into the night, O'Leary said the damage appeared more akin to a major highway accident than a collision in a neighborhood center, where pedestrians often pack sidewalks.

"We are very fortunate more people weren't injured," O'Leary said.

He also said the injuries of the occupants in the SUV could have been worse had they not been wearing seatbelts.

Correction: Because of an editing error, a story in yesterday's City & Region section about a fiery car crash in Brookline gave an incorrect location for a fire station that is one block from the crash, which occurred at Babcock and Harvard streets in Coolidge Corner. The station is in Brookline.