BOSTON — ‘I Hit with Such Force’
It took the city of Boston more than a year to remove the base of a broken street sign on Cambridge Street and Charles Street Circle and it was only after 25 Investigates inquired about that safety hazard and thousands of others reported it to the city.
The 5-inch metal stub sticking out of the ground was first brought to the city’s attention in December 2023, when Stephanie Bouley tumbled over it while walking to the Charles/MGH Red line MBTA station from her job at Massachusetts General Hospital. She spends a total of 4 hours commuting to and from her home in North Smithfield, RI daily.
“I fell into the street, and I hit with such force that it knocked my glasses off. It knocked my earbuds out. I fell into oncoming traffic. I ripped up both of my knees, my hands and my coat,” Bouley told Investigative Reporter Ted Daniel at the median where the fall happened.
Claim Denied and Dismissed
Bouley filed an $8,000 claim with Boston’s legal department for her medical expenses, lost workdays, torn clothing, and “pain suffering, + distress.” Bouley works in a lab and says her injuries left her unable to work for 2 weeks.
Bouley received a response 141 days later. The city said the metal stub is in an area controlled by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and/or the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). But the response included a caveat, “our office is unable to verify the accuracy of this information”.
When Bouley contacted MassDOT, the agency told her the road system where she fell is “complex with roadways overlapping different jurisdictions” and told her to contact DCR.
Bouley sent two emails to DCR simply asking that the hazard be addressed. DCR never responded but later told 25 Investigates the claim belongs with Boston.
“The fact that I had spent basically a year at this point trying to find out who is responsible for this one section of street is mind blowing to me,” Bouley said, “being passed from one organization to the next just makes me feel like my issue doesn’t really matter.”
2026 ‘Open’ Complaints
25 Investigates found 2026 “open” complaints that include the word “tripping” on Boston’s 311 site, some dating back years. The complaints reference broken sign stubs, loose bricks, holes, exposed bolts, and other pedestrian hazards. 311 is a non-emergency portal that allows people to report quality of life and other concerns directly to Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration.
25 Investigates visited 5 of the reported hazards and found an orange construction cone placed over a “jagged” sign stub in front of a health clinic on Tufts Street in Charlestown but there were no warnings for a ripped up section of sidewalk on Chatham street with broken and missing bricks or for another sign stub located on a sidewalk at the intersection of Lomasney Way, Martha Rd., and Nashua St.
College student Lauryn Lopez said she tripped over the stub in the fall while moving into her apartment building.
“I was unloading my U-Haul, and I had no idea. And I fell and dropped a whole bunch of glass things, and a box broke all of them,” Lopez said outside of her building.
‘Not Our Responsibility’
“All of the leverage for handling these claims rests with the city of Boston and not with our residents,” said Victoria Santoro, a co-founding partner of a Boston based personal injury law firm, and President of the Massachusetts Bar Association.
Santoro says there’s little incentive for the city to fix hazards from a liability perspective because Massachusetts law makes it difficult to collect damages from a government entity.
Street and sidewalk claims must be filed within 30 days and it’s often up to the claimant to determine jurisdictional issues. Municipalities know lawsuits are expensive to fight, and even if you win, there is a cap on damages. The most a municipality would have to pay out for a road or sidewalk defect is $5,000.
“My review of the city of Boston’s responses is to say it’s not our responsibility and we can’t confirm or deny whether or not we control that particular slice of the sidewalk,” Santoro said
Boston Responds
After initially passing Bouley’s claim on for jurisdictional issues, a spokesperson for Mayor Wu told 25 Investigates her claim was denied because the median where she fell is off-limits to pedestrians and walking is not permissible in the area.
The city said the sign stub Bouley first reported in December 2023 has been removed and all the other “tripping” hazards we inquired about have been addressed.
“Pedestrian safety is our top priority and we respond to concerns raised in 311 as quickly as possible. In 2024, the City reconstructed over 14 miles of sidewalks and resurfaced over 25 miles of roadway. The Boston Transportation Department (BTD) maintains over 200,000 parking and traffic signs city-wide, and the BTD sign shop prioritizes public safety repairs, such as stop signs and damaged signs in pedestrian areas,” a spokesperson for Mayor Wu wrote in a statement 11 days after our inquiry.
We shared the city’s response with Bouley, in an email she told us, “Wow, that’s crazy. So, if someone falls in the street, I guess that’s not their problem either since it’s a sidewalk? I don’t know why they didn’t even tell me that in the first place.”
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