This week I witnessed a number of near accidents and arrived just after a fender bender in two different parking lots.
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.
A New Jersey man was med-flighted to a Boston area hospital Friday after being injured when the moped he was operating collided with a Jeep on State Road in West Tisbury, police said.
According to a police report, Robert Czech, 47, of Clifton, N.J., sustained injuries after being ejected from his moped. His passenger, Emily McDonald, 25, of New York, N.Y., was also injured and taken to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, West Tisbury police Cpl. Garrison Vieira said Friday.
It was one of those sunlit, breezy exquisite Monday afternoons driving down State Road in light traffic from up-Island near Lambert’s Cove Road in West Tisbury. Through my windscreen I observed four rather burly young guys approaching me from Vineyard Haven on their obviously rented mopeds.
Island police yesterday reported a busy but relatively smooth Fourth of July holiday weekend.
The biggest story, of course, was the devastating fire on Main street in Vineyard Haven that destroyed the Cafe Moxie restaurant and caused extensive damage to the landmark Bunch of Grapes bookstore, which cast a pall for many over the usually celebratory Independence Day weekend.
Sunday's moped accident that claimed the life of a 41-year-old New York city woman has reopened old wounds for Islanders who want to see stronger safety standards for the two-wheeled vehicles, and others who want them banned from the Vineyard altogether.