BOSTON (WHDH) - A Saturday stroll turned tragic for Glenn Inghram.
Inghram was crossing the street near the Forest Hills train station when an MBTA bus hit and killed him.
He had the walk signal when the bus had a green light and turned left.
“I was devastated,” said family friend Josy Dumser remembering when she heard the news.
Dumser knew Inghram for decades and remembers him as kind, dependable and full of life.
“He had a fantastic energy to him. I think anyone who met him would pick up on that right away. One of the things I loved was he would walk in the door and it was like he was already telling a story. He had this warmth to him,” Dumser said.
Inghram was a longtime resident of Jamaica Plain. He ran a gardening business and dreamed of retiring in Maine. His sudden death has his family, friends and the community demanding change.
Neighbors said the crosswalk where Inghram died and others like it are dangerous.
“It was only kind of a matter of time at this point because we see so many things just like that every day. The traffic is insane. Pedestrians are always at a point where there could be a near miss at any point so unfortunately Glenn was not as lucky,” said Jamaica Plain resident Kelly Babinchak.
The intersection Inghram died at utilized concurrent signaling; it’s a system that allows cars and pedestrians to move through the intersection at the same time. At these intersections, pedestrians will have the walk sign while cars have the green light and can turn right and left. Under state law, drivers still have to yield to pedestrians but conflict can occur. The design is aimed to keep traffic moving, but residents say it’s putting people at risk.
“Some of the problems come when you are already halfway through the intersection and as a pedestrian, there’s not much you can do. People are turning into you and you are there and vulnerable,” said Babinchak who regularly walks through an intersection with concurrent signaling and has witnessed accidents.
Forest Hills residents expressed their concern to the city about concurrent signaling and other safety issues near the area where Inghram was killed months before his death.
“Why did it take Glen’s death to have this come to the forefront again? It just should have been corrected before his death but it wasn’t so this better wake up some people that need to make the decisions to change that intersection,” said Ken Inghram, Glenn’s brother, during a press conference following his death this October.
The intersection in Jamaica Plain isn’t the only area of concern. There are nearly 300 intersections across Boston that use the signaling.
7 Investigates analyzed pedestrian accident data from the city for the last nine years. The analysis uncovered that 85% of the most dangerous intersections for pedestrians also use concurrent signaling.
Inghram wasn’t the first to be hit at one.
In 2019, Diane Ly was killed and her boyfriend seriously injured at a crosswalk in the Seaport area of Boston. She had the walk sign and the vehicle turning left had the green light. The city changed the signal after the accident.
“It’s horrifying,” said Jessica Chesbrough.
Last year, she and her cat, Jacks, were crossing the street in Roxbury. She followed the signal but was still struck by a turning car. The accident still haunts her.
“I just don’t trust the lights whenever I’m out. And if I’m out with the cat, which is rare… if it’s a major intersection it’s just complete paralyzed fear,” Chesbrough said.
Her cat, Jacks, suffered a concussion and his claws had to be amputated. Now, Chesbrough would like to see Boston eliminate concurrent signaling.
“As I drive around and I walk around, I can see pedestrians and cars coming to that confrontation and they’re both looking at each other and they’re looking at the light and they’re confused and it’s like they both have the light,” Chesbrough said. “I see it all the time.”
Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston’s Chief of Streets, admits that changes are needed in some areas but warns that scrapping the system entirely has drawbacks.
“We would likely be making pedestrians wait a lot longer to cross the street and our concern is when you ask people to wait too long, they won’t wait and they’ll cross,” Franklin-Hodge said.
The city regularly receives complaints about concurrent signaling through its 311 system. Franklin-Hodge said the city is open to reevaluating some of the places concurrent signaling is used.
“We do intend to continue to use concurrent signaling in places where it is safe, where those volumes for conflicts are low, but we’ll remove it where it is creating an unnecessary amount of risk for pedestrians,” he said.
Boston leaders have removed concurrent signaling at the intersection where Inghram died.
“It’s a tragedy and I think I and the team are heartbroken at Glenn Inghram’s death and anytime someone is killed or seriously injured in our roadways we need to learn from it,” Franklin-Hodge said. “There are more changes in the works in the area surrounding there to improve safety in Forest Hills.”
Franklin-Hodge said in recent years the city has made policy changes to better prioritize pedestrian safety. His team is in the process of reevaluating the more than 800 intersections across Boston to increase pedestrian safety.
“We’re going to start with the busiest areas first and the areas with the most pedestrians and the most vehicle traffic,” Franklin-Hodge said. He is hopeful that new federal funding will allow Boston to make these changes faster.
Glenn’s friends still fear if more intersections aren’t changed, another tragedy is just around the corner.
“I am determined to make sure nobody else has to feel the pain of losing a friend,” Inghram’s friend Sam Pierce said at his vigil.
Inghram’s family is planning on filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the MBTA. His accident is still
under investigation and the bus driver has not been charged.
“We need to make sure his life affects change,” Pierce said.
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