As Crashes Go Unreported, Boston's Pedestrians Lose Out

Nestor Ramos explains that Boston's better than average pedestrian safety record is more spurious than sterling, "[the] state’s records on pedestrian accidents in Boston capture only a fraction of such accidents here. That is because the Boston Police Department has refused for years to report most crashes — pedestrians, bikes, cars, and everything else — to the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Officers are needed on their beats, police say, not filling out extra paperwork for the state’s databases."

That negligence has led to unfortunate policy consequences for Boston's pedestrians: "But without a clear picture of crash figures, state Department of Transportation efforts to make roads safer for pedestrians do not reach the state’s largest, busiest city. Just this spring, the city potentially lost a piece of a half-million-dollar state program, and potentially much more in years past, because the city does not fully report its accidents."