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Man whose daughter was killed in crosswalk hit by truck while cycling in Andover
Eric Olson has advocated for safer streets since his daughter Sidney was killed in Andover in 2023.
Last May, Eric Olson of Andover lost his 5-year-old daughter Sidney when she was struck and killed by a large truck while using a crosswalk. This week, he was hit by a truck while cycling in Andover.
Olson was uninjured, but took to social media after the incident to make an emotional plea for safer streets.
“I was coming down the road, he pulled out in front of me, hit me head on,” he said in a video posted to Instagram. “Just, look out for people. The one thing I’ve learned this last year is that nothing is that important, that urgent, to have to rush. So just look out for people.”
Olson said that the driver, operating a Ford F150, ran through a stop sign and hit him. His bicycle was damaged.
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Olson posted the video from the account of the Sidney Olson Rainbow Fund, an organization created by Olson and his wife, Mary Beth Ellis, to commemorate Sidney’s memory by advocating for traffic safety and connecting children with education and athletic opportunities. In the caption accompanying the video, Olson urged followers to write to their representatives in Congress to ask them to support new legislation aimed at protecting pedestrians, cyclists, and others not operating cars on roadways.
Pedestrian crash deaths have risen 80% nationwide since 2009. Over the past 30 years, the average U.S. passenger vehicle has gotten much taller, wider, and heavier.
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Recent research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found significant correlations between larger vehicles and increased pedestrian fatalities. Vehicles with blunt profiles and taller front ends are 45% more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian-involved crashes than smaller vehicles, researchers found.
Sidney Olson was riding a scooter to an art class, accompanied by a family member, on May 9, 2023. She was struck at the intersection of Elm Street and Route 28 in Andover.
Months later, prosecutors announced that they would not be seeking criminal charges against the driver. They determined that the driver was stopped at the intersection and began to move forward as the light turned green. He was not able to see Sidney, officials said, and was not impaired at the time.
“Today’s decision doesn’t change the terrible truth: The crash that killed Sidney, like 42,000 U.S. traffic deaths last year, was preventable,” Olson and Ellis said in a statement at the time.
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