DA: No Charges Filed in 2016 Death of Wayland Bicyclist

LINCOLN – No charges will be filed against a truck driver who ran over and killed a 61-year-old Wayland bicyclist who lost control of his bike on a sandy shoulder and fell under the truck tire in a fatal accident last June.

In a joint statement released on Tuesday, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Kennedy said the June 16, 2016 bicycle crash on Concord Road in Lincoln that killed Eugene Thornberg, 61, of Wayland, was an accident and no criminal charges will be filed.

The DA's office did not release the identity of the truck driver.

At 5:15 p.m. on June 16, 2016, the Lincoln Police and Fire departments responded to a motor-vehicle collision on Concord Road near Hillside Road. The collision involved a dumpster truck and a bicyclist, who was later identified as Thornberg.

The investigation, which included interviews of several witnesses and a reconstruction of the collision, found that the cyclist, while riding his bicycle south on Concord Road, passed several vehicles to their right while those vehicles were stopped in traffic in response to the traffic signal at the intersection of Concord Road and South Great Road.

As the cyclist approached the stopped traffic, he rode off the road surface and onto the loose dirt shoulder of the road. Once on the soft shoulder, the deceleration of going off the road combined with the soft surface of the dirt shoulder made the bicycle unstable causing the cyclist to lose control of his bicycle and fall over in the direction of the stationary dumpster truck, landing in front of the right rear dual tires of the truck.

At the same time, the driver of the truck began to move with the flow of traffic, unaware the cyclist had fallen under the tires. There is no indication that mechanical failure or the operation of another vehicle contributed to this collision.

According to Thornberg's obituary, he was an Executive Chef at Babson College in Wellesley, an avid bike rider and an outdoor enthusiast.

Courtesy photo from Eugene Thornberg's obituary.