BOSTON (WHDH) - A local leader is calling for change after officials say a woman was hit and killed by a Bellingham man driving under the influence near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
Surveillance video shows the car whipping around Theodore Glynn Way in Roxbury before crashing into three people who were walking on the side of the road on Saturday morning. The impact was so forceful that 59-year-old Lisa Vadeboncoeur died and the two other pedestrians were injured, according to the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office.
The driver, 46-year-old Kevin McCaffrey, pulled over after hitting the pedestrians, the DA’s office said, and a police report revealed he was “witnessed falling asleep and nodding off” as detectives tried to interview him.
McCaffrey allegedly admitted that “he had taken cocaine prior to operating the vehicle to try to keep him awake.”
He was arraigned Monday on charges including motor vehicle homicide by operating under the influence of drugs, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
McCaffrey was ordered held on bail pending his dangerousness hearing, which took place on Wednesday.
“Ms. Vadeboncoeur and the two other individuals injured in this crash were standing well off the side of the road when they were struck,” Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement. “My office has been in contact with each of the victims and the loved ones of Ms. Vadeboncoeur. We will continue to be available to provide them and the two surviving victims with the support and resources they may need and that they deserve.”
The crash happened just steps away from the troubled area along Mass. Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, where people struggling with drug addiction and homelessness congregate.
“It’s life without boundaries, life without expectations, open using, open dealing, public defecation,” said the district’s representative, Boston City Councilor Frank Baker. “In the last six months, we have had six murders down there. For the past eight years, we haven’t had six murders.”
With emotions running high, Baker said, “Addiction runs in my family. No one says, ‘I want to live on Mass. and Cass. It’s your decisions over many years — that’s your lot.’”
On Tuesday, Boston Mayor Kim Janey announced plans to remove the tents that line the area in the hopes that it will solve some of the problems there.
“We have to change the situation down there. We have to change the situation down there,” Baker said. “That’s the bottom line.”
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