Police Reports Released in Palmer-Sherman Accident

Recently released reports from the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) investigation into the Dec. 17 accident that took the life of Shira B. Palmer-Sherman '02 have shed new light on why the driver of the Toyota that hit her was not arrested.

The driver of the Toyota, Francis Florack, had borrowed the car from a friend and was on his way home to Roslindale that night.

Florack said he was coming down Brattle Street and had just gone through the intersection with Eliot Street at approximately 20 mph when he heard a thump.

Florack said he thought that he had driven over something in the street, and felt that something was wrong with the front end of his car.

He drove on until he found a place on the left side of the road to pull over, 122 feet from where Palmer-Sherman was hit, to check for a flat tire. As he was pulling over, others at the scene signaled to him that something was wrong.

When he got out he saw that Palmer-Sherman was under the front end of his car. Florack said that he had not seen Palmer-Sherman before he got out of the car, and had not realized that he had hit a pedestrian.

Officers who reported to the scene spoke with Florack and determined that he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Officers ran a warrant check, which turned up an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor. They took him into custody for the warrant and later released him pending results of the investigation by the Massachusetts State Police and CPD.

Investigators at the scene found the visibility was poor because of bad lighting and inclement weather the night of the accident.

The state police, CPD and the Middlesex District Attorney's Office decided not to press charges because they decided that a motorist would have had difficulty seeing a pedestrian crossing the road in the spot where the accident occurred.

A witness at the scene reported that she saw Palmer-Sherman crossing Eliot Street outside a crosswalk near the Mt. Auburn Street intersection. The witness then looked away, but heard a thump and turned back to see what had happened.

The witness said she saw a red BMW swerve. The BMW then stopped and four men got out of the car, one of them crying. A grey Toyota that had been traveling behind the BMW also pulled over slowly to the left side of the road and stopped.

The occupants of the BMW left the scene shortly after the accident without speaking to police. After talking to witnesses who saw the BMW at the scene, Cambridge police released a bulletin to local media, indicating that they were looking for a red car that may have been involved in the accident.

One of the occupants of the BMW read the report in a newspaper and called the police. The police investigated and found that the BMW had not been involved in the accident.

Florack declined comment.

--Staff writer Joseph P. Flood can be reached at flood@fas.harvard.edu