SALEM – A 28-year-old Salem man died Saturday night after crashing his scooter along Fort Avenue, although little information is available about the accident two days later.
Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller said police are investigating the incident with State Police accident reconstruction team. The police did not reveal the victim’s name on Monday morning.
The crash was reported around 7 p.m. on Saturday. Miller said the scooter rider was on the two-way bike lane on Fort Avenue toward Salem Willows when he dodged to avoid a skateboarder riding in the opposite direction. The scooter then crossed both lanes. A press release from the department states that the driver “fell into the sidewalk on his scooter and (was) thrown out of the vehicle”.
Many things about the accident remain unclear, including why it was not recognized by police until a day and a half after the incident and why it was apparently omitted from the public police logs released over the weekend.
The police first took note of the accident in a press release early Monday afternoon. The press release described the crash as a “scooter accident” and said the victim was taken to North Shore Medical Center, where he “later died of his injuries.”
Daily logs released to the media by the Salem Police Department omit the presence of the crash. A message left by Captain Fred Ryan, the department spokesman, regarding the schedule of reporting the incident, was not returned immediately on Monday afternoon.
Driver was “thrown” from the scooter
The accident was reported to police at 6:53 pm by a caller who said that “a scooter hit the curb” and that the rider was “thrown off the bike (sic), possibly into the woods,” a recording the scanner transmission revealed. Police quickly dispatched a second unit on Essex Street after discovering that the first officer “may need traffic assistance down there” on the way.
The victim was described as unconscious and showed signs of shallow breathing. The first officer on site suspected abdominal injuries, according to scanner audio.
The damage seen at the scene on Monday was in line with the dispatcher’s comments the night of the crash, specifically that it took place on a bend on Fort Avenue on the corner of the South Essex Sewerage District property. While walking around the scene there were visible signs of where the scooter hit the sidewalk and where the driver and scooter came to a stop.
For a large part of the corridor, short bumps, called “armadillos” because of their shape, separate the cycle paths from the vehicle lanes. On Monday, four of these armadillos were missing across the street where the scooter hit the sidewalk, despite signs that they had been missing for some time. However, another nearby armadillo was broken in two, with a clean metal bolt on the ground nearby.
Miller said it was unclear whether the armadillo bumps played a role in the crash.
“There’s one nearby,” he said, “but I don’t know if it had anything to do with the accident.”
However, the crash has heightened concerns among some local residents about the safety of traffic containment measures installed along Fort Avenue, particularly armadillos. Over the years, some local residents – including Ward 4 Alderman Tim Flynn – have raised concerns about the bumps, which pose a safety hazard to cyclists and motorcyclists.
Anyone with information about the crash should call the Salem police detectives at 978-745-9700 or the anonymous tip number at 978-619-5627.
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or [email protected]. Follow him on facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @ DustinLucaSN.
