Rail trail safety issues highlighted after car injures pedestrian family

There was no barrier. No gate. Just a few signs and a flexible pole that couldn’t stop a moving car. 

The setup allowed a car to careen off Old Marlboro Road and onto the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, hitting a family of three from behind as they walked.

The trail incident happened around 1:30 p.m. on April 28, near the intersection of Old Marlboro and Williams Roads. The family — a Acton woman, her mother, and her child in a stroller — was walking north when the car struck them. Police Capt. Brian Goldman said the trio was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

In the wake of the accident, the town said it is reviewing the crash to see if new safety measures are needed. Some Acton officials and residents say the trail crossing is flawed and changes should be made. 

A problematic crossing

Select Board member Mary Hartman, who often walks the rail trail, told The Acton Bridge in an email that the crossing at Old Marlboro and Williams Roads “is tricky because the trail intersects at an angle, and drivers tend to speed down that road.”

Linda Nieman is co-coordinator for Mothers Out Front Acton, a parent organization aimed at climate, racial, and social justice that has put a focus on making Acton’s streets safer for walking and biking. She says more safety measures are warranted.  

“When a crash occurs, we should ask: ‘How can this location be modified to prevent the next crash?’” Nieman told The Bridge. “Because another crash will inevitably occur without action.”

Town Manager Kerry Lafleur told The Bridge in an email that the junctions were “developed in compliance with [Massachusetts Department of Transportation] shared-use path design guidelines.” 

But following the April crash, she said the town’s internal Traffic Management Group — made up of staff from the police, public works, and land management departments — is reviewing the incident to determine whether improvements are needed. 

The official report 

According to a police report, the driver, Jonas Aristene, 41, of Littleton, first told officers his brakes failed before he admitted he had fallen asleep behind the wheel and veered off the road. Police did not suspect alcohol played a role and did not perform a sobriety test, per the report.

Witnesses and one of the victims told police that bystanders intervened to stop the motorist from driving away. Goldman said the car’s travel on the trail was limited.

“It wasn’t like the person drove down the rail trail for half a mile,” Goldman said to The Bridge. “It got intercepted pretty quickly.”

Police charged Aristene with negligent operation of a motor vehicle and a marked-lanes violation. The charges are still pending.

Goldman said some barriers and signage already in place at the crossing are designed to discourage vehicle entry while allowing pedestrians and cyclists access. 

The trail crossing at that intersection includes flashing lights, a flexible post, and a “No Motor Vehicles” sign. Similar features are in place at the Commonwealth Avenue crossing. 

Elsewhere on Old Marlboro Road, another crossing between Upland Road and South Meadow Ridge has the same signs and lights, but no flexible post. The Powder Mill Road crossing runs underneath the roadway and does not have a crosswalk. Its entrance from the sidewalk has no signs or barriers. 

None of the rail trail crossings include hard barriers that physically block vehicles from entering.

“It’s not the best-designed or -signaled intersection,” said Philip Posner, a frequent biker and a member of Acton’s Transportation Advisory Committee, referring to the trail junction at Old Marlboro and Williams Roads. 

“The issue with that particular intersection is that the signals are sometimes broken, and it is a little too wide, and it does not contain some safety features, which might cause motorists to slow down a little bit when making a turn.”

But Goldman said the incident wasn’t typical of what police have seen since the trail opened. “This is the first known instance of someone getting hurt on the rail trail here,” he said.  

Posner agreed with Goldman: While he said he sees some safety concerns with the trail, he called a crash like this atypical. 

“At the end of the day, I think the rail trail is safe,” he said. “This was an extraordinary circumstance, from my perspective.”

A path forward?

Hartman believes the town’s existing Traffic Calming Policy could be the right framework to address speed and safety issues.

The policy, developed by the public works and police departments, sets up a multi-step process for assessing and addressing community complaints.

New Select Board Chair Mark Howell told The Bridge that the best way to communicate concerns about road safety is by contacting police. Those complaints are reviewed by the Transportation Advisory Committee, which then can recommend changes to the public works department. 

Nieman said she’d like to see more action from the town to protect pedestrians from cars, including a response team that assesses such incidents quickly, preferably within two days. And she hopes the town will make it easier to report problems. 

“We know the dangerous areas in our neighborhood where we don’t let our children play,” she said.