Crime & Safety
Man Killed By Driver In Worcester Days After Safety Goals Adopted
A driver hit and killed a man in a wheelchair on Feb. 18, just after local planners set new goals for reduced traffic deaths in the region.
WORCESTER, MA — The first fatal hit-and-run collision of the year happened less than two days after a Worcester-area planning organization adopted new targets for reduced traffic deaths in the region.
Around 4 a.m. Thursday, Worcester police responded to 36 Boylston St. north of Lincoln Street on a report of a person down in the roadway. At the scene, they discovered a man with serious injuries.
The 52-year-old, who was in a wheelchair, died later at a local hospital. Police later tracked down the pickup truck driver who hit the man at a home in Boylston. Charles Brant, 44, was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal collision after police found damage to his truck "consistent with having been involved in a crash."
There are no crosswalks near where the man was hit and killed. The only streetlight is south of the crash scene near the Lincoln Street rotary.
The Central Massachusetts Metropolitan Planning Organization (CMMPO) met on Wednesday to discuss safety targets for 2022. The organization is required each year to either create local safety targets for traffic accidents, including ones involving pedestrians and bicyclists, or adopt MassDOT targets.
The CMMPO elected to adopt the MassDOT targets on Wednesday. The state's overall goal is zero traffic deaths, but MassDOT has set an actual target of 340 deaths statewide in 2022, which is four fewer than in 2021. Other safety goals include reducing the fatality rate to 0.56 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles, and having no more than about 2,500 serious injuries on state roads.
Based on five-year trends, the CMMPO wants to see no more than 32 traffic deaths in 2022. If achieved, that would be one less than the number of deaths in 2021.
Traffic fatalities in the CMMPO region — an area that includes Worcester and 39 communities around it — have been trending slightly higher than the state average. The five-year rolling average in 2020 dropped to 0.58 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, and stayed at that level into 2021. The state rate was 0.57 and 0.56 in 2020 and 2021.
The CMMPO saw a big drop in fatalities from 2019 to 2020, likely due to a reduction in driving during the early stages of the pandemic. The fatality rate was above. 0.60 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in each year between 2012 and 2019.
Serious injuries are also higher in the CMMPO region, with about 4.13 serious injuries per 100 million vehicle miles in 2021. That figure is projected to rise to 4.23 in 2022 while the statewide average is projected to fall.
