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Driver to be charged in accident on dangerous Nonantum Road

E-mail|Link|Comments () Posted November 11, 2009 09:00 AM

Charges will be brought against a 19-year-old driver who crashed into a tree Monday on a Newton road notorious for accidents, officials said Tuesday.

State Police Lt. David Wilson did not immediately know what charges are being brought against Rene Selenas-Lara of Allston whose 1994 Honda Accord went off Nonantum Road and crashed into a tree along the bank of the Charles River shortly before 10 a.m. Monday.

The lone passenger, Cynthia Cruz, 19, of Waltham, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with minor injuries after the accident. Selenas-Lara was not injured.

The accident's cause remains under investigation, Wilson said.

The dangers of Nonantum Road - a narrow, four-lane road which runs along the Charles River east from Galen Street near Watertown Square to Soldiers Field Road in Brighton - are no secret to local residents. They have been complaining for years that the lanes are too narrow and the 40 mile-per-hour speed limit too high.

The busy road that winds along the Charles River through Brighton, Newton, and Watertown, has a long history of serious collisions and fatalities.

In Dec. 2008, a 26-year-old Waltham woman died when her car drove off the road and crashed into the Charles River. Two years prior, two people were killed on Nonantum Road in separate accidents..

Officials announced a new design plan for the road in June 2008.