Boston Herald, Tuesday, May 12, 1998
By Meredith O'Brien
Former School Committee member William Spring - still recovering from an accident involving a bicycle courier last fall - will urge city councilors today to get tough with reckless messengers.
Spring, who suffered near-fatal injuries in October on Commonwealth Avenue when a Cambridge courier struck him as he crossed a street in a crosswalk, inspired a proposed ordinance to crack down on bike messengers who race through the city.
Still unable to give interviews or speak for extended periods publicly, he will submit written testimony that will be read at a council hearing today.
``Bill is very supportive of the police commissioner's efforts to make bicycle messenger services more accountable,'' said his wife Micho Spring, who plans to attend the council's Public Safety Committee hearing on the ordinance.
Prior to the accident that changed her family's life, Micho Spring said she'd never thought of bicycle couriers as a threat to pedestrians.
``I had never been aware of how dangerous it was,'' she said, adding that the doctor who treated her husband last year said he looked like he'd been run down by a car, not a bicycle.
``Bill's accident underscores how badly you can be hurt by a bicycle,'' she said.
Spring will send the council a letter expressing his support for the new ordinance, his wife said. ``Bill called (Police) Commissioner (Paul) Evans to offer his help and support,'' Micho Spring said. ``We want to do something about this.''
Evans, business leaders and members of the Menino administration spent the months following the accident crafting an ordinance to require courier services to obtain a total of $200,000 worth of insurance for each messenger for property damages, as well as injury or death. It would also give Evans the power to revoke or suspend courier licenses and mandate large, identifiable armbands and license plates.
City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said such regulations are sorely needed because couriers are paid per delivery, giving them an incentive to rush around city streets.
``Traveling at excessively fast speeds, weaving in and out of automobile and pedestrian traffic, ignoring traffic signals and crossways and behaving badly are among the reasons why Boston's licensing and traffic departments must put training wheels on bicycle couriers,'' Murphy said.
He endorsed the insurance provision - which may prove controversial with messenger services - saying that other delivery companies that use cars or trucks to transport their goods must obtain insurance. ``The same standard must apply to bicycle couriers,'' Murphy said.
Micho Spring said her husband is ``doing really well,'' and is ``making really remarkable progress.''
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