The following information was provided by the Watertown Police Department.
Aug. 1, 10:45 p.m.: A license plate was stolen from a Toyota sedan parked in the Purple Garage at Arsenal Yards. The car had been parked there since July 30, and the plate was from Florida.
Aug 1, 3:35 p.m.: A pair of women went into Ulta and took three bottles of fragrance, worth a total of $390.
Aug. 2, 3:45 a.m.: Police received a report of a driver asleep behind the wheel on Arsenal Street near the Watertown Mall. Officers found a Honda SUV stopped in the travel lane, and a man slouched behind the wheel. Police woke the driver, who had glassy and bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, and an odor of alcohol on his breath. The driver refused to take field sobriety tests. Daniel Gonzales, 41, of Milford, was arrested for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol – a second offense, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
Aug. 2: A resident of Piermont Street saw someone in the driveway. Police believe the suspect may be the same man arrested for attempted break-ins in the area.
Aug. 3, 12:45 a.m.: Two vehicles got into a rear-end accident on Mt. Auburn Street at Walnut Street. Police spoke to both drivers and one said he was coming from a bar in Cambridge. He admitted to drinking alcohol before driving. Officers observed the driver had slurred speech, bloodshot and glassy eyes, and smelled alcohol on his breath. The man took field sobriety tests, and police determined he was intoxicated. Paul Murray, 25, of Arlington, was arrested on a charge of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, and for following too close.
Aug. 3: An Avon Road resident reported that someone had altered a check that had been sent to a landscaping company. The name on the pay to line had been changed on the check, which was for $1,580. The resident had placed the check in a mailbox in Belmont. The case has been referred to Belmont Police.
Aug. 3: Three residents reported that a man tried to enter their home overnight on Aug. 3. Two were on Sidney Street and one on Pearl Street. Police received doorbell camera footage of the suspect, who did not gain entry, but tried to open three doors. With the help of other law enforcement agencies, Watertown Police identified the suspect. Jonathan Quintanilla, of Newton, was arrested on Aug. 6 in Newton on three counts of attempted breaking and entering. He also had a warrant from Belmont for the same offense. Police said it remains an active investigation.
Aug. 5, 10 p.m.: A vehicle struck a pole on Arlington Street near Maplewood Street. The driver said that he swerved off the road because his windows were fogged up. The man had glassy and bloodshot eyes, he had an odor of alcohol on his breath, and his speech was slurred. Field sobriety tests were conducted and police determined the man was intoxicated. Luke Santos, 37, of Cambridge, was arrested on charges of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, and marked lanes violation.
“Two vehicles got into a rear-end accident on Mt. Auburn Street at Walnut Street. Police spoke to both drivers and one said he was coming from a bar in Cambridge. He admitted to drinking alcohol before driving.”
Imagine what it’s like being a cyclist who rides this route regularly and having to read reports like this. I have to cycle this small stretch of Mt. Auburn Street to get home from the Arsenal area. No amount of flashing lights and visibility gear would have saved me from somebody who couldn’t even avoid slamming into another car directly in front of them.
Us cyclists are afforded no safety at all in our built environment. It feels like we’re being punished for choosing a space-efficient, cleaner, quieter, active mode of transportation that doesn’t pump pollution and greenhouse gasses into our air.
I could have been biking at the time and place that crashes like this one happened. Unlike the other cars involved in this crash, I don’t have a giant metal cage with air bags to protect me from drunk drivers. I don’t mean to diminish the damage that drunk driving can do to other drivers — but we have to admit that cyclists are far more vulnerable.
If Watertown is going to ever meet its stated goal of reducing single occupancy car trips, we need to take seriously the safety of cyclists so people who don’t have a high risk tolerance feel safe cycling instead of driving. From reading reports like this one, it’s clear that we can’t even keep drivers from hitting stationary objects let alone moving ones and even after decades of trying we still can’t get people to stop driving drunk.
It’s time to take a different approach and start designing a built environment that takes the safety of cyclists into consideration instead of only focusing on the convenience of drivers.
12:45 in the late night early morning, if you are out cycling you better have Hi=Viz and lights, so the drivers/pedestrians and anyone else can see you! The report does not state which driver of what vehicle hit the other, so you don’t know if the sober driver hit the the one who failed the tests, do you. I’ve seen you ride your bike to the Sq. meetings with your kid on it at the Middle school, funny I didn’t notice you wearing any Hi=Viz at all. Since the inception of the bike, it seems little has changed, maybe the bikes need to start being equipped with more safety features, mandatory lights, how about a bell to alert people your coming up behind them, seeing how none of you can speak when riding on the paths at a fast clip and removing your phone from the handle bars so your not distracted huh. You don’t like cars, you don’ like single cars, but if none of your age group speak, why would they carpool like before? So how about mandatory instruction for bike riders test, that may bring more awareness for you and us to feel safer. Just so you don’t get mad at me, I approached one of your members at a meeting and offered to come down and show how to interact with a truck, seemed interested but went nowhere. Talked to another member of your group about it and didn’t seem to know anything about it, so there you go. Remember this, No One I Know or Others, walk out of their house and say I’m Going To Kill someone today. P/S when I saw you running in the street on Belmont St this morning, I didn’t notice you wearing any Hi=Viz running with the flow rather than into it. Running in the street is safer than biking in the street? One last Safety reminder, if running and a car is waiting to get out of the intersection, for safety’s sake go behind the car not in front like you did! Just trying to keep you alive, my friend!
Maybe the car that go hit needs to be equipped with more visibility gear! What a strange double standard… When a car gets hit we don’t blame the them for getting hit but when a cyclist gets hit all of a sudden it’s “well, what was he wearing?”
And FYI my bike has a string of lights on the back it as well as TWO rear tail lights AND our helmets have lights on them, but I guess you didn’t care to take a good look you just made wild assumptions as you didn’t even break your stride while walking by. Plus, it was still perfectly light out by the time we went home.
I don’t have a problem with cars. I have a problem with lack of safe infrastructure for bicyclists. We’re expected to ride sandwiched between in the door zone of parked cars and fast moving traffic. I’d like to see you get out of your massive SUV and try it. Even seasoned cyclists like me find it stressful even if we’re doing everything right.
“I approached one of your members at a meeting and offered to come down and show how to interact with a truck” — are you assuming I don’t know how to interact with traffic on my bike? I’ve been biking around here for close to 15 years now. I know what I’m doing. None of that matters if a distracted or drunk driver veers out of their lane veers out of their lane and hits a cyclist
“when I saw you running in the street on Belmont St this morning, I didn’t notice you wearing any Hi=Viz running with the flow rather than into it” — let me get this straight… you expect me at 8AM in broad day light to be running down the SIDEWALK with visibility gear? uh huh… so you think all pedestrians should be wearing visibility gear *on the sidewalk* during daylight hours? What kind of dystopian world are you living in?
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Sure. I would also like to see cyclists not going through red lights and stop signs and weaving in and out of lanes as they please while giving the finger to drivers. But it is not a perfect world.
Is it?
BTW, I really, really love my cars. Love to drive them all the time. So much fun.
Nice try.
Interesting how you completely fail to mention the countless traffic violations perpetrated by drivers of cars. Every single day in Watertown I see cars rolling through stop signs and running through red lights. Speeding is so common around here that it has become mundane and commonplace. People park on sidewalks, stop in crosswalks, drive drunk, drive while looking at their cell phones, and all kinds of other violations which have become all to common these days.
Sometimes on my daily runs I just count the traffic violations by drivers of cars. There are so many that I often lose count!
But sure, it’s the cyclists that are the problem! This double standard needs to stop.
Giving a driver’s license to anybody and everybody in MA sure doesn’t help.
Sure I would love to see motorists not running red lights and weaving in and out of traffic and giving other motorists the finger. Oh, I forgot to mention the dangerous tailgating phenomenon!
I try to drive as if I have other motorists (and vulnerable users) lives in my hands. We seem to have forgotten that that is part of the social compact.
I ride my bicycle with the Yossarian viewpoint. “They’re all trying to kill me.” And sometimes it really seems like they are. Recently, five consecutive cars ran the light at Arlington while I had the green on Templeton. Bad behavior not limited to cyclists.
Well, I am sure that there are very fine people on both modes of transportation as well.
Where’s the lie, Dennis? Did you not pick me out when I was running on Monday at 8:45am, yell my name from your car a bunch of times and then tell me, “I’m the pain in the ass that you’re going to learn to live with?” (yes, that is a direct quote)
Keep in mind I had no idea who you were so from my perspective a random stranger is harassing and threatening me and I have no idea why.
When I asked you your name, you said “doesn’t matter” then you sped off. You didn’t even have the guts to identify yourself.