MIT Student Struck By 2 Cars, Dies

Michelle Micheletti, a 19-year-old sophomore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), died Friday after being struck by two cars on Memorial Drive.

While crossing the street with four friends near her dormitory, Micheletti was hit by a Porsche driven by Ferras Binladen of Charlestown, Mass., said Massachusetts State Police officials. Another car also hit her immediately afterwards, but fled the scene.

"The victim was, in fact, struck by a second car," State Police Lt. Paul Maloney told the Boston Globe.

Binladen has not been charged in the incident, and police said that neither speed nor alcohol were factors in the accident, the Globe reported.

In the past, MIT students have expressed fear that a tragedy like this could occur on Memorial Drive because of the lack of streetlights and crosswalks.

Last month Ceani Guevara, a junior at MIT, asked the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) to paint a crosswalk at Memorial Drive and Endicott Street, close to where Micheletti was hit, but nothing was done, the Globe reported.

"I was trying to get a crosswalk painted on it because hundreds of people cross there every week," Guevara told the Globe.

Guevara circulated a petition and sent the signatures of 400 people supporting a crosswalk to the commissioner, according to the Globe. MDC officials told her that the crosswalk couldn't be painted until next fall due to weather and contracting issues, the Globe reported.

MIT professor Paul Levy told the Globe that "if you're in those dormitories and you're trying to get to the boathouse or just cross over to get to the river, there's really no designated place to do that."

"A lot of people here are quiet upset," Guevara told the Globe. "They don't understand why nothing was done."

Anyone who witnessed the accident is asked to call the State Police at (508) 820-2121.