BOSTON — The family of man who died in a fall from a dilapidated staircase near an MBTA station last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the transit agency, alleging decades of negligence.
The widow of Boston University Associate Professor David Jones is suing the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority for allowing a set of stairs connecting Columbia Road with Old Colony Avenue near the JFK/UMass MBTA station in Boston to “fall into disrepair,” causing it to be a “danger to the public,” according to a complaint filed in Suffolk Superior Court.
Jones left his home for a jog on Sept. 11, 2021, and never returned home, his wife said at the time of his death.
Massachusetts State Police said that a passerby found Jones’ body beneath the stair system, which was severely rusted. The stairs also had a huge gap where they ascended towards Columbia Road. Investigators believe Jones fell through that gap to his death.
The stairs had been closed to the public for 20 months. That staircase was taken down shortly after the incident and was completely fenced off.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden later announced that Jones’ death had been ruled an accident and that no charges were being filed. An attorney representing Jones’ family called his death “an avoidable accident that took a good man’s life.”
In the lawsuit, Jones’ wife alleged the MBTA “failed to maintain” the staircase and instead let in wither away for decades. She also alleged the MBTA “failed to properly warn the public of known dangers” associated with the compromised stairs and that no “adequate measures” were taken to prevent the public from accessing them.
“As a result of the defendants’ individual and collective negligence, by and through its employees, agents, and representatives...The plaintiffs’ decedent was unwittingly both encouraged and permitted to access the dangers associated with the staircase and, as a direct and proximate result, caused to fall, sustain injury, suffer and death,” the lawsuit stated.
Jones was a father of three, in addition to being a husband.
Family of man who died in fall from staircase near MBTA station files wrongful death lawsuit by Fox Boston Staff on Scribd
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