Cyclist death in Boston
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Zack Barowitz
Jul 12, 2026, 5:41:51 PMJul 12
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Activist who worked in Coty Hall
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Rosemarie De Angelis
Jul 12, 2026, 7:21:47 PMJul 12
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This is why we need to hold drivers accountable
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Zack Barowitz
Jul 12, 2026, 8:20:03 PMJul 12
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James from the Gear Hub told me about the legal concept of “Rebuttable presumption of liability” which shifts the onus of proof on to the motorist to prove that they were operating safely.
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John Brooking
Jul 15, 2026, 9:22:16 PMJul 15
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An acquaintance of mine in the bicycle education world has a guest editorial on this crash published in the Globe today.
——
The preventable blind spot trap killing Boston’s cyclists
Large trucks turning right can sweep cyclists into their rear wheels in an instant. Understanding this deadly dynamic could save lives.
By Paul Schimek
Large trucks turning right can sweep cyclists into their rear wheels in an instant. Understanding this deadly dynamic could save lives.
By Paul Schimek
Updated July 15, 2026
Paul Schimek is a data analyst and transportation planner who served as the first bicycle program manager for the City of Boston.
Last week Louisa Gag tragically lost her life while bicycling in Boston. The city has not provided details about the crash circumstances, but available information suggests the incident involved a large truck making a right turn. Long-time Boston cyclists have seen this scenario before. In the past 14 years, 10 cyclists in and around Boston have been killed when approaching or riding in a bike lane beside a truck turning right:
▪Chris Weigl, Commonwealth Avenue near Boston University, December 2012
▪Kanako Miura, Beacon Street at Bay State Road, May 2013
▪Eoin McGrory, Charlestown, April 2014
▪Anita Kurmann, Massachusetts Avenue at Beacon Street, August 2015
▪Meng Jin, Museum Way, Cambridge, November 2018
▪Darryl Willis, Harvard Square, August 2020
▪Virginia Chalmers, Blue Hills Parkway, Milton, November 2020
▪George Clemmer, Massachusetts Avenue at Huntington Avenue, July 2022
▪Kimberly Staley, Mount Auburn Street at DeWolfe Street, Cambridge, June 2024
▪Minh-Thi Nguyen, Hampshire Street at Portland Street, Cambridge, June 2024
It’s important to understand how these crashes occur. To get the rear wheels of a big truck around a sharp corner on the right without driving over the sidewalk, the driver must keep the truck straight and pull the cab deep into the intersection — probably entirely past the crosswalk — before turning the steering wheel hard to the right. When the cab is fully in the intersection and begins to pivot right, the rear wheels are still well behind the cab. As the truck turns, the vehicle acts like a closing pair of scissors. The cab goes wide, but the long middle section of the truck’s body dramatically off-tracks, sweeping inward toward the curb. As the truck pivots, the right side of the truck cuts the corner, sweeping into the adjacent bike lane.
A cyclist beside the truck cannot see the cab start to turn. When the side of the truck makes even light contact with a cyclist’s shoulder or handlebar, it instantly turns the front wheel of the bicycle. Because the force pushes toward the curb, the front wheel twists right, and the bicycle is swept out from under the rider. Because a bicycle leans in the direction opposite to the front wheel turn, the cyclist falls downward and inward, into the path of the advancing rear wheels of the truck. The cyclist is on the ground before they even register what hit them. There is no time to brake or bail out. That’s why this crash scenario is so deadly.
Bicycle safety educators have known about this hazard for a long time. Guides to safe bicycling regularly provide the same advice: Never ride beside a large truck or bus. While it can be safe to pass on the right of a vehicle that is completely stopped and cannot move forward, as soon as traffic starts moving the rider should stay completely behind. It doesn’t matter if the light is green or if there is a bike lane. If a heavy vehicle is moving, or stopped and could potentially move, wait behind.
Unfortunately, many forces push against widespread adherence to this life-saving advice. It’s hard to get bicyclists to think about the risk of a slow-moving truck beside them when the default fear is of a fast-moving car behind them. A bike lane both reinforces the default fear and provides an inviting space in which to filter up the right side of stopped or slow-moving traffic. But that space is not always safe: It can be a sweep zone for the off-tracking of large turning vehicles.
Tremont Street approaching Parker Street, where Gag was killed, was repaved and marked with bike lanes in 2023. Not only does the new bike lane route cyclists to the right of traffic that could turn right, it follows a steep downhill where cyclists can easily go fast and is within the range of opening doors on parked cars. It would have been far better for the purpose of keeping cyclists away from road hazards to maintain a single shared travel lane on the downhill section, as it had been for years before 2023 and still is from Brigham Circle to the top of Mission Hill.
Many people say that the problem with these painted bike lanes is obvious: “Paint is not protection.” The solution, they say, is equally obvious: Build protected bike lanes. Officials in cities have tried that. At Hampshire and Portland streets in Cambridge, where Minh-Thi Nguyen died in 2024, a protected bike lane had been completed only months earlier. The infrastructure funneled Nguyen directly into the truck’s blind spot and gave both of them a green light to proceed through the intersection. The intersection that Kimberly Staley was killed at two weeks later did have a separate signal phase — but the cyclist may have only seen the main traffic signals and not the less prominent bicycle signal telling her to stop. Cambridge traffic regulations to this day do not tell bicyclists what to do in the presence of both regular and special signals.
How is the problem handled in countries with extensive bicycle infrastructure? In Denmark, the danger of bicycle crashes with right-turning trucks remains a persistent problem; there’s even a word for it: højresvingsulykker (right-turn accidents), and recently there have been major efforts to warn cyclists of the danger. In the Netherlands, the government runs a nationwide campaign teaching cyclists to stay 10 feet behind trucks and make eye contact with turning drivers before proceeding.
Massachusetts appears to be the only state in the nation that fails to specify that anyone wanting to pass on the right must first make sure that it is safe. Bicyclists are often told that the law requires turning drivers to yield when turning right, even when a cyclist is approaching in the blind spot. So when a driver’s failure to yield to bicyclists approaching from the right causes a death, it would be logical to expect a charge of criminal negligence. In none of the 10 fatalities listed was there even a moving violation issued to the truck driver, let alone a more serious charge, suggesting that police and prosecutors do not consider a truck driver at fault if a bicyclist is killed while in their blind spot.
The best way to honor Louisa Gag and the other cyclists who have died is to make sure this never happens again. The state needs to make traffic rules conform with the rest of the country by allowing passing on the right only when safe — this change could help provide the public education that is needed. Cities must stop designing bicycle facilities as if the only danger to riders is fast-moving traffic approaching from behind. But bicyclists do not need to wait for those changes. They need to know about the invisible trap of a turning truck, and the way to avoid it: Stay behind, not beside.
Paul Schimek is a data analyst and transportation planner who served as the first bicycle program manager for the City of Boston.
Last week Louisa Gag tragically lost her life while bicycling in Boston. The city has not provided details about the crash circumstances, but available information suggests the incident involved a large truck making a right turn. Long-time Boston cyclists have seen this scenario before. In the past 14 years, 10 cyclists in and around Boston have been killed when approaching or riding in a bike lane beside a truck turning right:
▪Chris Weigl, Commonwealth Avenue near Boston University, December 2012
▪Kanako Miura, Beacon Street at Bay State Road, May 2013
▪Eoin McGrory, Charlestown, April 2014
▪Anita Kurmann, Massachusetts Avenue at Beacon Street, August 2015
▪Meng Jin, Museum Way, Cambridge, November 2018
▪Darryl Willis, Harvard Square, August 2020
▪Virginia Chalmers, Blue Hills Parkway, Milton, November 2020
▪George Clemmer, Massachusetts Avenue at Huntington Avenue, July 2022
▪Kimberly Staley, Mount Auburn Street at DeWolfe Street, Cambridge, June 2024
▪Minh-Thi Nguyen, Hampshire Street at Portland Street, Cambridge, June 2024
It’s important to understand how these crashes occur. To get the rear wheels of a big truck around a sharp corner on the right without driving over the sidewalk, the driver must keep the truck straight and pull the cab deep into the intersection — probably entirely past the crosswalk — before turning the steering wheel hard to the right. When the cab is fully in the intersection and begins to pivot right, the rear wheels are still well behind the cab. As the truck turns, the vehicle acts like a closing pair of scissors. The cab goes wide, but the long middle section of the truck’s body dramatically off-tracks, sweeping inward toward the curb. As the truck pivots, the right side of the truck cuts the corner, sweeping into the adjacent bike lane.
A cyclist beside the truck cannot see the cab start to turn. When the side of the truck makes even light contact with a cyclist’s shoulder or handlebar, it instantly turns the front wheel of the bicycle. Because the force pushes toward the curb, the front wheel twists right, and the bicycle is swept out from under the rider. Because a bicycle leans in the direction opposite to the front wheel turn, the cyclist falls downward and inward, into the path of the advancing rear wheels of the truck. The cyclist is on the ground before they even register what hit them. There is no time to brake or bail out. That’s why this crash scenario is so deadly.
Bicycle safety educators have known about this hazard for a long time. Guides to safe bicycling regularly provide the same advice: Never ride beside a large truck or bus. While it can be safe to pass on the right of a vehicle that is completely stopped and cannot move forward, as soon as traffic starts moving the rider should stay completely behind. It doesn’t matter if the light is green or if there is a bike lane. If a heavy vehicle is moving, or stopped and could potentially move, wait behind.
Unfortunately, many forces push against widespread adherence to this life-saving advice. It’s hard to get bicyclists to think about the risk of a slow-moving truck beside them when the default fear is of a fast-moving car behind them. A bike lane both reinforces the default fear and provides an inviting space in which to filter up the right side of stopped or slow-moving traffic. But that space is not always safe: It can be a sweep zone for the off-tracking of large turning vehicles.
Tremont Street approaching Parker Street, where Gag was killed, was repaved and marked with bike lanes in 2023. Not only does the new bike lane route cyclists to the right of traffic that could turn right, it follows a steep downhill where cyclists can easily go fast and is within the range of opening doors on parked cars. It would have been far better for the purpose of keeping cyclists away from road hazards to maintain a single shared travel lane on the downhill section, as it had been for years before 2023 and still is from Brigham Circle to the top of Mission Hill.
Many people say that the problem with these painted bike lanes is obvious: “Paint is not protection.” The solution, they say, is equally obvious: Build protected bike lanes. Officials in cities have tried that. At Hampshire and Portland streets in Cambridge, where Minh-Thi Nguyen died in 2024, a protected bike lane had been completed only months earlier. The infrastructure funneled Nguyen directly into the truck’s blind spot and gave both of them a green light to proceed through the intersection. The intersection that Kimberly Staley was killed at two weeks later did have a separate signal phase — but the cyclist may have only seen the main traffic signals and not the less prominent bicycle signal telling her to stop. Cambridge traffic regulations to this day do not tell bicyclists what to do in the presence of both regular and special signals.
How is the problem handled in countries with extensive bicycle infrastructure? In Denmark, the danger of bicycle crashes with right-turning trucks remains a persistent problem; there’s even a word for it: højresvingsulykker (right-turn accidents), and recently there have been major efforts to warn cyclists of the danger. In the Netherlands, the government runs a nationwide campaign teaching cyclists to stay 10 feet behind trucks and make eye contact with turning drivers before proceeding.
Massachusetts appears to be the only state in the nation that fails to specify that anyone wanting to pass on the right must first make sure that it is safe. Bicyclists are often told that the law requires turning drivers to yield when turning right, even when a cyclist is approaching in the blind spot. So when a driver’s failure to yield to bicyclists approaching from the right causes a death, it would be logical to expect a charge of criminal negligence. In none of the 10 fatalities listed was there even a moving violation issued to the truck driver, let alone a more serious charge, suggesting that police and prosecutors do not consider a truck driver at fault if a bicyclist is killed while in their blind spot.
The best way to honor Louisa Gag and the other cyclists who have died is to make sure this never happens again. The state needs to make traffic rules conform with the rest of the country by allowing passing on the right only when safe — this change could help provide the public education that is needed. Cities must stop designing bicycle facilities as if the only danger to riders is fast-moving traffic approaching from behind. But bicyclists do not need to wait for those changes. They need to know about the invisible trap of a turning truck, and the way to avoid it: Stay behind, not beside.
John Brooking
Cyclist, Cycling Educator, Technologist
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/PBPAC/CAE741VCQ%2B0avfc0QHrGTUaZDmA4h6g6riM8iQ70QfQE430X1JA%40mail.gmail.com.
Emilie Swenson
Jul 20, 2026, 5:08:01 PMJul 20
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Thank you for sharing.
What a sad story and also sad to see such a long list of people who have been killed by similar scenarios.
Appreciate that this piece included education and what to pay attention to as a cyclist (and as a cyclist to be aware of how our roads/bike lanes are constructed) - really helpful. Certainly work to be done.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/PBPAC/CAJg%3D2oxpGi2jvCvdPWfz_ih445LWf8fuGd%2Bnrdb-PzTM9Wb%2BwQ%40mail.gmail.com.
John Brooking
11:25 AM (8 hours ago) 11:25 AM
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Thanks for the appreciation for education, Emilie. As I just mentioned on the new PBPAC Discord board, I strongly believe in cyclist education as a way to empower cyclists to go anywhere by bike, regardless of the infrastructure, building their range and confidence. In past years, I have promoted the national CyclingSavvy education program, for which I am an instructor. I have not done as much promotion this year, for various reasons, but I welcome any interested cyclist to contact me about it. We do both online and in-person instruction.
Last I knew, there was no information about what kind of truck was involved in Louisa Gag's death. Our CyclingSavvy post about large trucks discusses tractor trailers, which are the most often deadly, but right hooks in general remain a problem, one that even so-called "protected intersections" can truly protect only with the addition of bicycle-specific signal phases. Lacking that, there's always the risk of conflicting streams of traffic moving at the same time, and only so many partial mitigation strategies available. Cyclists cannot rely on just trusting the paint.
John Brooking
Cyclist, Cycling Educator, Technologist
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/PBPAC/CAHNtm9OgUj3K-QbMy-W--DnFGHC0vAuT1VD7sAKcdQAWK_ziRw%40mail.gmail.com.
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