One of the victim’s sneakers remains on the side of Western Avenue yesterday afternoon as city police officers discuss the crash which sent an 86-year-old city resident to Baystate Medical Center with serious injuries, where he later succumbed to his injuries. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – An 86-year city man was injured when the bicycle he was riding on Western Avenue was struck by an eastbound Chevrolet pickup truck, shortly before 2 p.m. yesterday.
City police report that John Kurty, 86, of Westwood Drive died overnight due to injuries sustained in the crash. He had not been wearing a helmet.
A witness to the accident called to The Westfield News to report the crash shortly after it occurred.
A reporter dispatched to the scene found that police had closed Western Avenue and were diverting traffic to Dickinson Place near the eastern entrance to the Stanley Park due to the accident scene near the western entrance to the park near the tennis courts.
Police, led by Lt. Jerome Pitoniak, the commander the Traffic and Safety Bureau, were examining the crash scene.
Neither the operator of a pickup truck stopped in the middle of the roadway nor the cyclist who had ridden the bike lying in the road were in evidence.
Pitoniak subsequently reported that the crash occurred at 1:54 p.m.
The witness who reported the accident to the newspaper asked not to be publicly identified and said that she saw the accident while waiting to turn left on the Western Avenue from the driveway of the Woodward Center of Westfield State University.
She said that she saw the bicyclist crossing the street, from the park side of the road toward the WSU side, when it was struck by the truck.
Pitoniak said that his interviews with witnesses led him to conclude that both the bicycle and the pickup truck had been traveling eastbound when the bike swerved into the path of the truck.
The witness said that the truck was operating at a reasonable speed and the operator swerved toward the center of the road in an apparent effort to avoid the bicyclist.
The truck came to rest with its right side wheels only a foot or two away from the center line.
The witness said that the operator of the truck immediately exited his vehicle to care for the man and called 911.
The woman said that she too ran toward the victim who was lying in the roadway bleeding from his facial orifices. She said that the man had not been wearing a helmet and his ball cap had been knocked off as had his sneakers.
The witness reports that the pickup driver said that the man “came out of nowhere” and he couldn’t avoid hitting him.
She also said that WSU students ran into the nearby athletic center and got a “first responder” who ran out to help the man until an ambulance arrived.
The witness said the pickup driver was a man in his 30s and the bicyclist was “at least (in his) mid 80s.”
The cyclist was taken by a city ambulance to Baystate Medical Center where he was treated but the medical staff ultimately was unable to preserve his life.
Unlike nearby Noble Hospital, Baystate maintains a sophisticated trauma treatment center.
A park worker said that he recognized the bicycle because he sees it “every day” when a white hair man rides it through the park.
The park worker said he usually sees the man early in the morning when he is arriving for work at the park.
He said he does not know the man but said “He gives you the wave every morning and pedals his way through the park.”
Troopers from the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section assisted in the investigation.
