BOSTON — Buses, passengers, cars poised for pick-ups: arrival areas at Logan International Airport are often chaotic places. Monday evening, the one outside Terminal B became deadly.
State Police say Vishwachand Kolla was swiped by a bus and killed, while standing outside his vehicle, waiting for an arriving passenger.
“It appeared in the video I saw that the car was pulled to the right curb the way it should be,” said Erin Breen, director of the Road Equity Alliance Project at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Someone standing in close proximity with their vehicle should have had a clearance that would keep them safe. So this is a tragedy. This is something that should not have happened.”
Police have not charged the driver of the Dartmouth Transportation bus, but the investigation is ongoing. The company itself scored high safety marks in a recent Department of Transportation audit — with zero crashes in the last two years.
Kolla, 47, is from Lexington. He was employed by Takeda, a pharmaceutical company. A spokesperson for Takeda expressed deep sadness at Kolla’s unexpected passing — and offered condolences to his family.
While Logan’s arrival areas can be hectic, they usually lack one thing that contributes mightily to fatal pedestrian accidents.
“One of the big factors we’re seeing is the role of traffic speed,” said Dan Gelinne, Senior Research Associate at the University of North Carolina’s Highway Safety Research Center. “They make crashes more likely and they make the outcomes more severe.”
There is no evidence speed played any role in Kolla’s death — but whatever the cause, he joins a long list of pedestrians killed in the U.S.
“In 2020, the last data we have available, there were 6,500 pedestrians killed in traffic crashes in the U.S.,” said Gelline. “And that’s a 50 percent increase over the previous decade.”
Government figures have become available for 2021. They show nearly 7,500 killed that year.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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