2 collisions, hours apart, at Mattapan intersection
A Boston police cruiser collided with a car at about 2:43 a.m. yesterday at the intersection of River Street and Cummins Highway in Mattapan, sending two police officers to the hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening. Less than 12 hours later, a white
Officer James Kenneally, a spokesman for the Boston Police Department, said that no citations were issued in either incident, and that both were under investigation.
Kenneally said he had no further details about the first collision.
In the second collision, the motorcyclist was traveling along Cummins Highway around 11:15 a.m. when a car pulled out in front of him and cut him off, Kenneally said.
“As a result of being cut off, the operator of the motorcycle then struck the motor vehicle,’’ he said. Kenneally said the motorcyclist was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening. The driver of the car was not hospitalized, Kenneally said, but he had no further information.
Kenneally declined to identify anyone involved in the crashes.
Kiki Cutler, 27, of Mattapan said that the motorcycle rider is her daughter’s cousin and that she was waiting at the site for family members to come and pick up the damaged motorcycle. Cutler said that she lives nearby and that the intersection is one of the busiest and most dangerous in the neighborhood.
“You’re pulling out of the farmer’s market; you just can’t do it,’’ she said of the Mars Farmers Market on Cummins Highway. “People are double parked. You can’t see the cars coming out. It’s crazy.’’
Cutler said the motorcycle rider, whom she did not identify, had not been injured seriously.
Rashene McIntyre, 23, of Mattapan, who was tying his shoe laces on River Street minutes after the motorcycle accident, said he has seen at least three collisions at the intersection this week, including the one involving the motorcycle.
“You have a food market right there that’s a hot spot for a lot of people,’’ he said.
Alwin Barrow, a barber at Alister’s Hairstyling at the corner of River Street and Cummins Highway, said the bus station near the intersection also plays a role in the high frequency of crashes.
He said there is an unnecessary bus stop on the corner just a few hundred feet away from the station, and people try to swerve around the buses, sometimes causing wrecks.
