Glenn Inghram grabbed a sandwich and drink from his favorite convenience store, near Forest Hills station, last Saturday afternoon, before making a “fateful trip back to his van.”
His family is now searching for answers after an MBTA bus driver struck the 63-year-old Jamaica Plain resident in a crosswalk on the lower busway. Inghram was rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with serious injuries before he died Sunday night.
“We want some answers to figure out what happened so we can move past this, as well, but just for something to change,” Inghram’s niece Ashley Inghram told reporters inside a Downtown Boston conference room.
“It is a scary intersection,” Inghram said of the roadway where her uncle died, one that her family and hundreds of nearby residents are calling for safety improvements.
The Inghram family intends to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the MBTA in connection with the incident, said Attorney Thomas Flaws, of Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys.
Flaws detailed that from what he’s been told, the MBTA bus turned left into a crosswalk with Glenn Inghram crossing, which he said violates Massachusetts law. He added that a traffic signal at the intersection allows buses to turn on a green light while a walk sign is illuminated.
“We need to hold the MBTA responsible for that,” Flaws said.
“Glenn Inghram lived a selfless life,” the attorney added, “and nothing would honor his legacy and his life more than seeing these changes be made and prevent a senseless loss of life in the future.”
More than 600 residents from Jamaica Plain, Woodbourne and Forest Hills are calling on the city and state to do all it can to prevent future incidents.
They’ve signed a letter in the days following Inghram’s death, outlining improvements they’d like to see implemented at the intersection of Tower and Washington streets.
Requests include a full pedestrian walk signal separate from bus timing, an extension of the pedestrian-only signal timing to the intersection of Arborway and Washington Street, reevaluating bus routing, and increased visibility around the bus exit.
“Every day that passes without action puts more lives at risk,” the letter states. “We implore you to treat this situation with the urgency it demands.”
City officials are in touch with area residents to determine what immediate improvements can be made, while longer-term planning is underway as part of a multimodal corridor project along Hyde Park Avenue, a city spokesperson told the Herald.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragedy that occurred Saturday at Forest Hills Station, and at the city level, our top priority is to improve safety for pedestrians,” the spokesperson said.
Ken Inghram wiped his tears while talking about his brother’s life, the injuries he suffered, the day he died, and how he hopes Glenn’s death isn’t for “nothing.” He challenged people to walk across the intersection to see the dangers of buses getting “too close to you.”
“Why did it take Glenn’s death to have this come to the forefront? It should have just been corrected before his death,” Ken Inghram said, “but it wasn’t so this better wake up some people that need to make the decisions to change that intersection.”
Ken and his children Ashley and Matt Inghram flew in from Denver last Saturday, arriving at Beth Israel around midnight. They received numerous updates from a neurosurgeon about Glenn’s severe head injuries including a fractured skull and brain swelling.
Late Sunday morning, the family decided to take Glenn off a ventilator, and he died shortly before 9 p.m. He donated his organs, Ken said of his brother who ran a gardening business in Jamaica Plain.
Glenn had lived in JP since 2004 or 2005, Ken said, but he had his eyes on moving to Maine. Ken’s last time seeing Glenn alive was in June when they had an AirBnB in Castine, Maine, near Bar Harbor, to look at properties – two farmhouses.
The brothers also visited Acadia National Park with Glenn’s beloved beagles.
“He has been a great friend, a great brother,” Ken said of Glenn. “I miss him dearly. I just don’t want this death to be for nothing. Sometimes I feel like it takes a death to effect change in this society.”
In response to a Herald inquiry on how the MBTA is addressing safety at Forest Hills station, an agency spokesperson highlighted how it has “more than doubled the size of its Safety Department in the past three years, broadening the scope of its activities and training thousands of employees to help foster a culture in which safety is prioritized.”
“We send our condolences to the Inghram family during this time and the MBTA is cooperating with the District Attorney’s active investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident,” the spokesperson said. “Following safety-related incidents, it is standard procedure for bus/train operators to be removed from service while the investigative process advances.”
Ken Inghram said he has no comments for the bus driver who struck and killed his brother as he awaits for the investigation to be complete.
“I understand what needs to be done,” he said. “I’m not going to blame him. I can’t, I don’t know the circumstances behind the incident.”
