Part of State Road was closed Wednesday afternoon.
Part of State Road was closed Wednesday afternoon following the accident.
Mark Lovewell

Moped Driver Killed in Up-Island Collision

The driver of a moped was killed Wednesday afternoon in an accident on State Road involving a moped and a truck. The accident took place two days before the Fourth of July holiday as the Island was beginning to fill with people and traffic.

The driver of a moped was killed Wednesday afternoon in an accident on State Road involving a moped and a truck. The accident took place two days before the Fourth of July holiday as the Island was beginning to fill with people and traffic.

Chilmark police said Alexandro Garcia, 22, of Springfield died Wednesday afternoon when the moped he was driving collided with a pickup truck.

The initial investigation showed that Mr. Garcia lost control of the moped on the right shoulder of State Road and attempted to regain control, according to a press release from Chilmark police. He then drove into the oncoming lane of traffic where he collided with a Toyota pickup truck driven by Jonathan Rich of Chilmark.

Chilmark police chief Brian Cioffi told the Gazette Thursday that Mr. Rich had turned onto the road from the Grey Barn and Farm. There were two passengers in his pickup truck.

The press release said that when the first units arrived on the scene, they found Mr. Garcia lying in the road. Police said it was determined that Mr. Garcia had died from his injuries.

Police said no other operators were involved and no charges are expected to be filed. There were no other injuries in the incident, police said.

Mr. Garcia was an employee of Sun ’n’ Fun moped rentals in Oak Bluffs. Wednesday was his day off, and he was traveling by himself, police said.

The incident took place at about 12:30 p.m. A long stretch of State Road from the Grange Hall in West Tisbury to the Chilmark Community Center was closed for about six hours following the accident, and state police accident reconstruction experts visited the scene.

Aquinnah, West Tisbury and state police assisted at the scene of the accident.

Tri-Town ambulance, West Tisbury fire and rescue and the Chilmark fire department also responded. “It’s a sad, tragic, horrible accident,” Chief Cioffi said. “Obviously my heart goes out to the families. This is going to affect a lot of people for a long time. It’s just sad.”

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 07/06/2014 - 00:27

Permalink

R.Campbell West Tisbury

Prayers and comfort for this family who have lost their young son.
The grief and suffering they must endure is beyond reason.
Compassion to the Rich family, for their suffering.
A salute to the police and rescue personnel, who must have the
hardest jobs of us all.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 07/06/2014 - 10:12

Permalink

Bob Cullen Oak Bluffs

Moped riders do not truly calculate the deadly risk that they are exposing themselves to by riding in a two-wheel (semi-stable) open unprotected vehicle on the narrow, curvy, sandy-edged, moderate speed, up-island roads. The risk/consequence is not worth it.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:25

Permalink

Cathy Cape

We rented a Jeep from Sun 'N Fun the day before. Alex was nice enough to drive us to the Ferry so we wouldn't have to wait an hour for the next one. He was such a nice and really polite young man. He was so proud that he was working for his brother in law. We remembered him fondly and were devastated to hear the news of his accident. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 07/23/2014 - 10:21

Permalink

flounder bob chilmark

im very sorry for 1 more death here...drivers even hit trees horses deer and die too...ever watch 'our' tourists renta moped or even a bike. the girls jump around flittering with joy trying on a helmet laughing at each other, not listening to the agent tell them the road rules,if even given...they jump on try to fly away in circles trying to figure out whis way to go...2-5 mopeds wide...even racing side by side up island and down..its say joy and excitement expolding...then a fall, a car, a deer, a tree, or just sand...its over, so much for a vacation in our island...the island wount change we must, fun or money which do we want to offer...it's in OUR hands...:)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 07/31/2014 - 22:40

Permalink

Allen Razdow

So sorry to hear of this tragic accident, condolences to family and friends. I believe the law says a motorbike has to have less than a certain size engine to be rented or driven by someone without a motorcycle license. That's why they have to ride the shoulder and cause drivers to get impatient and pass unsafely. If we could change that law to allow (and require) strong enough engines to go the speed limit, renters could use the whole road, have fun and be safer.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.