ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Berks County woman has died from injuries sustained in a weekend crash in the 600 Block of Union Boulevard, officials said Tuesday.
Marie D. Colon Rodriguez, 27, of Wyomissing, was the operator of a motor scooter involved in a collision with a motor vehicle, the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office said in a release.
Colon Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 11:09 a.m. Monday at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Muhlenberg.
The cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries suffered in the collision.Lehigh County Coroner Dan Buglio in the release.
The cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries suffered in the collision, coroner Dan Buglio said in the release.
In addition to the coroner’s office, Allentown Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office also are investigating.
Allentown Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding whether the motor scooter driven by Colon Rodriguez was a street-legal vehicle.
According to the state Department of Transportation, motor scooters must be titled, registered and insured as defined by the vehicle code to be operated on public roads.
They also need to meet the state’s equipment and inspection rules for motorbikes.
According to the PennDOT website, many scooters lack the needed equipment to be on the road, including fenders, turn signals and lights, which are needed to pass inspection.
High-crash corridor
On April 3, city officials celebrated a $1.9 million state grant to fund traffic-calming measures with an event that kicked off the Safe Streets initiative.
More than 8,600 crashes were reported on Allentown roadways from 2019-23, consultants said at the event.
Almost 300 of those were classified as “high-injury,” meaning at least one person suffered serious injury or died.
Union Boulevard is a high-crash corridor where conceptual improvements such as roundabouts have been used as examples of solutions, particularly at troublesome intersections.Online vehicles of Allentown crashes
An online dashboard displaying more than 10,000 crashes in Allentown since 2019 includes a heat map that shows crashes on almost every block of the city in that period.
Union Boulevard is a high-crash corridor where conceptual improvements such as roundabouts have been used as examples of solutions, particularly at troublesome intersections.
A recent presentation used roundabouts as one idea to potentially improve safety, including one at the intersection of Union Boulevard, Airport Road and North Irving Street.
Saturday’s fatal crash took place less than a block from there.
