Screech! Crash! Bang! This car collision chronicler has been snapping pictures of the (many) by his house.

Boston Globe

21-05-2025

He sees it all right outside his window: A Prius, nose pushed in and pointed sideways on the grass. A maintenance van, its front bumper melded with the back of a Subaru. A wrecked sedan with its trunk crumpled, stressed-out owner with hand on forehead.
It's the same thing over and over and it's driving him crazy, just like it has for a slew of neighbors and elected leaders for years.
Advertisement
Lots of cars crash in lots of intersections, but Iaccarino believes this one stands out.
Related
:
Since he moved in 2 1/2 years ago, data from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation show there were 23 crashes at that intersection, although officials caution that number may be incomplete. MassDOT has dubbed it one of the state's '
In an interview, Judy Pineda Neufeld, a city councilor whose ward includes the intersection, called it 'one of the worst in the city.' Joe Curtatone, Somerville's mayor from 2004 to 2022, said even during his term it was 'one of those intersections you tell your kids to pay attention to.'
Ever since he moved to his spot overlooking the intersection, Iaccarino has been complaining to the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation that something needed to be done. (Asked about the intersection, a city spokesperson deferred to DCR.)
Advertisement
'Don't take my word for it,' he said on a recent afternoon, peering out over this busy crossroads. 'Look at the photos.'
There are many, many photos.
For more than two years, Iaccarino has been meticulously documenting crashes here, hoping the volume of evidence would move state officials to make changes he believes would save countless bumpers — and maybe even lives.
Somerville resident Ari Iaccarino takes photos of the frequent crashes he sees out his window overlooking an intersection.
Ari Iaccarino
Now, there is news to celebrate. As part of planned maintenance, state officials said this month that safety updates will be installed as early as this summer.
Iaccarino said it's long overdue, as this spot has been trouble for years, with too many cars trying to crisscross a too-busy roadway all at once.
'I would drive by this yellow house and think, man, it would suck to live there with all the traffic and potential accidents,' he said. Then fate brought them together two years ago. 'This was the only [apartment] open at an affordable price. It's funny how life works out like that.'
Related
:
Now, 'gainfully unemployed' as he describes it, he works from a home office that overlooks the intersection, where wide windows give it
the feel of an air-traffic controller tower — only with agitated commuters instead of pilots and an environment where he has zero sway over the chaos below.
'I feel like I'm running Newark Airport over here,' he said, referring to the New Jersey transit hub recently
Advertisement
First responders converged at the scene of another crash.
Ari Iaccarino
When Iaccarino hears, or sees, a crash, he races to the window to snap photos on his phone. Then he heads outside, where he talks to the owners of the cars and urges them to complain to the state.
'I actually wrote to DCR and my reps a pretty frustrated email after my puppy and I almost got hit here,' he said. 'If you guys don't put up a 'no right on red sign,' I will.'
He
Among the troubles at the intersection.
Ari Iaccarino
Few others have paid as much attention to the chaos.
Except Sam Lakkis, who owns the Sam's Gas service station that is also wedged into the intersection. 'There's always an accident,' Lakkis said, waving a cigarette at the roadway.
Lakkis said he tells mechanics not to drive through it and makes them do road tests for cars in the shop elsewhere.
'I witness it. I know it's bad,' he said.
A chewed up traffic pole in one corner, scraped repeatedly by oncoming cars, is a reminder not to stand too close to the road while waiting to cross the crosswalk, as are the pieces of obliterated headlights that litter the grass.
'We've adapted to it,' said Iaccarino's neighbor Sonny Hadley, who lives upstairs. 'We know the do's and don'ts. But I'm more in fear of something happening to someone else.'
Change is coming. A DCR spokesperson said late last week that agency engineers studied the intersection and would add 'several safety improvement measures' to it, alongside changes on other parts of the parkway. They include a new left-turn arrow, more time added between when lights in the intersection turn from red to green, and new cameras that can be used to help adjust the timing further, as needed. DCR will also put up new 'yield to pedestrian' signage.
Related
:
Advertisement
That all has the support of Iaccarino, although he said he still wants 'no turn on red' signs installed. (DCR said it would study the possible impact of doing so and consider adding those, too, which would likely slow traffic in the often-gridlocked strip of road.)
'Great news!' he said in an email when he heard of the plan. 'Sometimes the best compromise is one where everyone doesn't walk away with everything they want.'
At least they get to walk away.
A traffic incident in the intersection sent one car off the road and into a grassy area.
Ari Iaccarino
Spencer Buell can be reached at