Bike courier crash behind him, Spring still suffers

Boston Globe, January 9, 1999 [with corrections]

See note below for missing facts

Boston School Committee member William J. Spring has never met JohnR. Falante, but he has prayed for him at the dinner table every eveningthis week. He even called the hospital every day to check on Falante'scondition. 

Spring and Falante share a bond of tragedy. A year after Spring sufferedserious head injuries when he was struck by a speeding bicycle courier,Falante was involved in a similar accident this week.[with a non-bicyclecourier]

''My heart really went out to this guy,'' Spring said. ''This is a reallyterrifying accident for him and his family. They have to go through thesame trauma and fear we did.''

In November 1997, Spring, 63, was taking his daily 20-minute strollfrom the Federal Reserve Bank, where he is a vice president, to his homein the Back Bay when a courier [collided with] him as he crossedCommonwealth Avenue.[As Spring ran accross the street against the redlight he slammed into the courier who was proceeding through a green light.]

The courier, Jonathan Gladstone, was fined $220 for a series of traffic[andbureaucratic] violations. 

Spring lapsed into a coma that lasted five weeks. More than a year later,he still is only at the midpoint of recovery. 

''I have gradually gotten my mind back and my body back,'' he said inan interview yesterday. ''There are a lot of things I've been told aboutthat I don't remember. They taught me to walk again. I gradually learnedbalance again.''

Spring's accident spurred city officials and police to crack down onreckless couriers by requiring them to be insured, have licenses, wearvisible identification numbers, and have license plates on their bikes.Messenger companies also must register with the city. [This is absolutelymisleading - see note below]

On Monday, four days after the new law went into effect, Falante, a54-year-old businessman from Lowell, was hit by a bicyclist pedaling thewrong way down one-way Summer Street. Falante, who suffered massive headinjuries, was taken out of intensive care and listed in fair conditionat Massachusetts General Hospital yesterday.

Even though the bicyclist works for a messenger company [he was nota bicycle messenger], the company said he was not working as a courierat the time of the accident. [He was definitely not a bike courier.The employee had just delivered a VAN. I doubt very much that he put itin a messenger bag, and carried it on his bike. He must have a drivers'license but automobile couriers in Boston are not required have messengerlicenses.].

For Spring, the latest tragedy shows the need for everyone to exercisecaution and restraint on the city's roads. 

''We have got to bring civility back to the streets of Boston,'' hesaid. ''We have to make safety a high, high concern.''

Spring has only a hazy memory of his accident. He can remember thathe had just about reached the curb when, out of the corner of his eye,he saw a bicyclist zooming toward him. 

The collision that followed left Spring with gaps in his memory: Hecannot remember the week preceding the accident, or going home for Christmasafter he emerged from the coma. He is on a slow path to recovery, one thatdoctors tell him usually takes two years. 

When he was released from the hospital last January, Spring felt sosapped of energy that he spent most of the next six months sleeping. Hewould walk to the University Club near his home for a swim three timesa week, but he had to be accompanied by an aide in case he lost his balance.

He returned to work in September, but still tires easily. On the adviceof doctors, he works only half-days, spending afternoons napping so heis rested by the time it is time for him, his wife, Micho, and their twoteenagers to gather for dinner. 

He still has trouble focusing his eyes, but glasses with special lenseshave helped. He may have to undergo eye surgery in six months, however.

For all he has been through, Spring has remained remarkably upbeat,and said he harbors no malice toward bicycle couriers. One of his daughter'scollege friends, he noted, was working as a bicycle messenger in the late1980s when she was struck and killed by a truck. [This sounds similarto what a racist would say - "I'm not racist, I even had a black friendonce!"]

''Bicycle couriers perform a really vital function in Boston, and theyare brave people,'' he said. ''But they have not been behaving in a trulyresponsible way.''

Note: Spring has never owned up to his own repsponsibilty for this accident.Spring has used his power and influence to attack working cyclists wheneverhe could. He has never suggested that automobile couriers should receivethe same treatment as bicycle couriers. Like most accidents it could havebeen prevented if all those invovled were a little more careful. It istime that we all took responsiblity for our own safety. The new messengerlaw that Spring supported would have done nothing to prevent this accident.All it would do is give the Boston School Committee member and FederalReserve Bank a vice president, a chance to convince a bike courier's insurancecompany to give him some money.

Since much of the reporting in this accident isselective when it comes to the facts, Messengerville has includedsome. These types of serious accidents involving bike couriers are extremelyrare. The Gladstone/Spring accident occurred when a pedestrian (Spring)ran across the street against a red light and collided with the cyclist(Gladstone) who was proceeding through a green light.

The bicycle messenger ordinance in effect at the time already requiredbicycle couriers to have licenses, wear visible identification numbers,and have license plates on their bikes. It also required messenger companiesto register with the city. Much to the dismay of the anti-bike types, theonly new requirement is insurance. Automobile couriers face no similarrequirements.

Since the accident took place at an intersection crosswalk wewere told that Gladstone was ticketed because, under the law vehiclesmust yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk - even if the pedestrian isjaywalking. The fines he received were: "$100 for not wearing the vestrequired under a city ordinance; $100 for not being licensed, and $20 underthe state law mandating deference to pedestrians in crosswalks. In otherwords $200 for bureaucratic violations and $20 for traffic violations.

However now we learn that no such law exists and there was no legalbasis for the traffic ticket that he received. In other words - Mr Springwas the dangerous one.
 
 

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