Where In Natick Pedestrians, Cyclists Are Getting Hit: Map

NATICK, MA — Clinton Poland was only the latest person to get hit by a car near the Honey Farms on South Main Street in downtown Natick.

Poland, 78, was hit on Christmas at around 5:30 p.m. People who knew Poland, a local Alcoholics Anonymous leader, believe he was headed to the Common Street Spiritual Center. The driver did remain at the scene.

Witnesses jumped in to help Poland after he was hit, but he was taken off life support at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital on Jan. 4.

The area where Poland was hit has been the scene of two other pedestrian-vehicle collisions in recent years, according to Natick police records. The other two incidents were not as serious as what happened to Poland, but they underscore that even with marked crosswalks, pedestrians and bicyclists are often in danger on local roads.

After Poland's death, Patch requested all police reports on pedestrian and bicycle collisions with vehicles over the last three years. More than 40 collisions happened in that time, with victims ranging from a person crossing in a crosswalk with a walker to a child in a stroller.

There's a distinct cluster of collisions in the downtown area, with 16 there since 2017. But town-wide, many collisions happen when a driver is only paying attention to other vehicles — or not at all. Drivers were given a citation in 24 of the 43 incidents, according to police records.

For example, on Sept. 22, 2017, a person was crossing East Central Street near Town Hall in a marked crosswalk with flashing lights activated. A driver who making a left from Washington Street onto East Central drove into the crosswalk while looking the other direction, according to the police report.

The pedestrian was "struck at slow speed in the buttocks" but didn't need medical treatment. The driver was cited.

In another incident, a driver hit a cyclist wearing a reflective shirt and flashing lights near the intersection of Pond Street and Palmer Avenue. The driver claimed he didn't see the cyclist, but police cited him for failure to yield when making a right turn, according to the police report.

Driver inattention is one of the leading killers on local roads, according to an analysis of pedestrian collisions by the law firm Sweeney Merrigan. Out of over 25,000 pedestrian-vehicle collisions between 2001 and 2014 in Massachusetts, 3,043 ended in some type of driver citation.

On the positive side, the number of collisions in Natick appears to be trending down. There were 17 in 2017, 15 in 2019, and down to 10 in 2019, according to police records.

Here's a map of all the collisions reported by police in 2017, 2018, and 2019: