Boston

South Boston Residents Push for Pedestrian Safety Improvements

Just over two weeks after 2-year-old Colin Thomas McGrath was killed at the intersection of L and East 6th streets in South Boston, area residents peacefully protested traffic safety

What to Know

  • 2-year-old boy Colin McGrath was killed and his 4-year-old sister injured when a minivan plowed into a stroller in South Boston on July 25.
  • Residents, who say they want something done now, peacefully marched from L Street to a traffic meeting being held at an elementary school.
  • New Boston Police Commissioner William Gross walked with residents and attended the safety meeting on Thursday.

Residents in South Boston say they are sick of unsafe traffic conditions, not just on L Street, but all over the area. They want something done, and they want it done now.

It's been just over two weeks since two-year-old Colin McGrath was killed when a minivan went up onto the sidewalk and plowed into a stroller.

The community is still heartbroken and angry since the tragedy.

On Thursday, residents peacefully protesting for traffic safety marched from the L Street Bathhouse to a traffic meeting at the Joseph P. Tynan Elementary School in South Boston.

Boston police commissioner William Gross, who walked with residents from the Bathhouse and also attended the meeting, said, “We’ve already put measures in place and continue to go further to ensure that people are going to be safe when they travel on L Street and any of the intersecting ways.”

Some of those measures are radars tracking speed and blockers making sure vision is not obstructed on corners.

Resident Nora Wasserman said, “It could be a start, but they’re band aids. How about you fix the crosswalks that are hardly on the road? How about you put some raised crosswalks so people know that they’re crosswalks? Put more streetlights to avoid accidents.”

Commissioner Gross says police will be out enforcing the laws and went on to say, “We can move forward with much sympathy and trying to ensure that this won’t happen again and the way to that is to adhere to the rules of the road.”

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