Back Bay residents raise concerns about speeding

In the wake of a Boston University student speeding 100 mph in the Back Bay area, some residents said they no longer feel safe on their streets.

“Little girls are afraid to walk to school. Neighbors are tired of glass strewn all over the street,” said Sam Wallace, president of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. “Some of them [residents] can’t walk fast, some of them are old…There are children here, people with babies.”

These concerns have been exacerbated by Zeguang Xu, 19, a resident of the South End and an undergraduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, who was arrested Oct. 1 for allegedly driving a Maserati GranTurismo over 100 mph in the Back Bay neighborhood, where a young couple was struck and killed by a speeding vehicle in late June, according to an Oct. 2 press release.

Suffolk County District Attorney spokesman Jake Wark said Xu’s speeding could have resulted in a more dangerous outcome.

“You got the very intersection where two people were killed by somebody who ran a red light while operating over the speed limit. This individual was traveling at a rate of speed even higher than the vehicle in that crash,” he said. “So that is a pretty textbook example of negligent operation of a motor vehicle.”

Xu was charged with speeding, negligent operation, failure to stop, operating without a license and providing a false name to police as he drove under wet road conditions. He was released after posting bail for $1,000 and will return to court Dec. 9, according the release.

Tracey Maclin, a professor in the School of Law  who specializes in criminal procedure, said he does not see anything unfair or egregious about Xu’s charges.

“He’s entitled to a trial of course to have an actual determination of whether he actually did it or not,” he said. “Certainly, if he was driving 100 miles per hour in a 30 mile [per hour] zone, that sounds like negligent operation of a vehicle…Again, if indeed he did what he was charged with, I don’t see anything wrong with what the police did.”

Depending on whether the case goes to trial, there are several possibilities for how everything could proceed, Maclin said.

“Chances are, he’ll take a plea to reduce charges, and if so, it won’t be very long. If it goes to trial, it might take a little longer, but that will all depend on what his lawyers advise him to do,” he said. “He has to be arraigned, and there will be a preliminary hearing, so there will be a lot of pre-trial procedures. That’s not an unusual amount of time.”

However the court proceedings turn out, other residents said the neighborhood streets lack proper enforcement and speeding persists as an issue throughout the years.

Kate Kane, 44, of Back Bay, said drivers are not aware and cautionary enough in the area.

“Sometimes on this road, people don’t realize that there are people crossing the streets, and they just speed down, ignoring the stop signs and the lights,” she said. “It’s very scary to think of something like that happening. I know when I’m crossing the street, I’m worried about people going right through the red lights.”

Matt Cronin, 25, of Back Bay, said driving is a responsibility, not a privilege, that people need to be more mindful of.

“My car is actually in the shop because somebody was driving the wrong way on Beacon Street. They hit my car when it was parked on the street,” he said. “Obviously, first hand experience right there of people just not taking this road very seriously.”

Wallace said the solution to the speeding problem is a combination of both proper police enforcement and community support.

“It’s good they caught the young man,” he said. “The police department has been wonderful with this. We just really have to clamp down, let people know that this neighborhood is not going to take this.”

Mina Corpuz contributed to the reporting of this article.