As police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a 4-year-old girl struck by a pickup truck near the Boston Children's Museum on Sunday, the city is moving forward with plans to improve safety at the intersection.
The plan includes creating wider sidewalks on both sides of Congress and Sleeper streets, building new raised crosswalks and grade-separated bike lanes, along with creating places for short-term pick-up and drop-off spots. Parking would be prohibited on streets close to intersections and parking spaces would be removed to improve visibility for both drivers and pedestrians.
According to the current schedule, those improvements would not be fully implemented until 2025 — but some smaller changes are expected this spring.
Jascha Franklin-Hodge, the city's chief of streets, told a meeting of the Fort Point Neighborhood Association Tuesday night that short-term projects like restriping crosswalks along Congress Street, Sleeper Street and nearby intersections can be done in the new few weeks. In addition, he said signage and flex posts could be installed quickly to designate no parking zones along streets near the intersections.
Longtime resident Valerie Burns said she was disappointed by what she heard at the meeting.
"It just seems like there should be something more immediate since we've had this horrible tragedy — tragedy at a spot that we've all known was very, very, dangerous," Burns said.
Noting the concentration of children visiting both the Children's Museum and nearby Martins Park, she suggested putting up an electronic speed monitor and signs indicating children crossing, like in a school zone.
Franklin-Hodge told the neighborhood association there is no evidence that signs alone lead to different driver behaviors.
"What we are trying to focus our energy on and to do as quickly as we are able, the things that we know have a proven ability to improve safety: making it difficult or impossible for cars to park in places that block the visibility of the crosswalks, making sure that pavement markings for crosswalks and other safety critical markings are refreshed and bright and visible to drivers," he said.
Burns also suggested assigning a police officer to help people cross safely during busy times. Franklin-Hodge said he would meet with Boston Police about that idea. And Amy Auerbach with the Boston Children's Museum said an officer should be deployed during the upcoming April school vacation week.
Auerbach recalled the fight to get a crosswalk on Congress Street until there was an accident there.
"At the time, we actually had to hire a [police] detail at the museum to be able to assist in walking kids across the street," she said. "... We would rather see the city trying some things in the short run than trying nothing, because it's it's a pretty scary thing."
Congress Street was one of four streets identified for improvements about two decades ago through the city's Crossroads Initiative, and it's the last one to see changes.
Police said the driver of the Ford F-150 that struck the girl in the Seaport District stayed at the scene and cooperated with police. The driver has not been charged, though the investigation is continuing. Police have not publicly released the names of the child or driver. Police at last night's meeting had no updated information about the crash.
There have been three pedestrian deaths in Boston so far this year. Last year there were seven. According to the Governors' Highway Safety Association there were 33 pedestrian fatalities in Massachusetts in 2023 down from 46 in 2022. There are no statistics relating specifically to fatal accidents involving trucks but there was a 5-year-old girl hit by a truck in Andover last year and woman was struck and killed by a snowplow truck near Boston Medical Center in January and a minister fatally struck by a truck near Newburyport City Hall n February,
