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Penney Richards
September, 2009 |
Reading Chronicle story from
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Waiting for
answers four months after a fatal motorcycle accident
Four months after a fatal motorcycle accident took two lives on
Lowell Street, families are still awaiting results of state police
report
By PAUL FEELY
Published: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:19 AM EDT
READING – Four months after a fatal accident took two lives on
Lowell Street, the families of the victims are still awaiting
results of a state police accident reconstruction team’s
investigation into the incident.
“I’m angry to be honest,” said Penny Richards, mother of Penney Jean
Richards, 25, of North Reading, who along with Michael A. D’Amore,
32, of Edgemont Avenue, Reading was killed when the motorcycle they
were traveling on collied with a pickup truck at the intersection of
Lowell and High streets the morning of November 19, 2009. “The
hangup is with the state police report. I understand that they are
doing a job, but it is now four months later and we still don’t have
any answers.”
Penney Jean Richards, the daughter of former Lawrence Eagle Tribune
reporter Penny Morang Richards and retired Reading Police Officer
David Richards, and granddaughter of the late Reading Chronicle
Editor Bruce Morang, was a passenger on the Harley Davidson
motorcycle when it collided with a pickup truck at 9:53 a.m. that
day.
Both D’Amore and Richards were transported to Lahey Clinic in
Burlington, where they were later pronounced dead as a result of
their injuries.
Richards, along with the Reading Daily Times Chronicle and other
media outlets, has repeatedly made inquiries as to when the report
would become available, and always receives the same answer from law
enforcement officials - in another one t0 two weeks.
“That is the same answer I get, every time,” said Richards. “All I
want to know is how this happened. As her mother, I have a right to
know, and I hope that once it is released someone from the state
police will explain to me why it has taken so long.”
Penney Jean Richards graduated from North Reading High in 2001 and
worked as a medical assistant. She had just recently joined the
oncology department at the Massachusetts General Hospital Clinic in
Danvers., and was looking to begin college study to further her
radiation therapy career.
Her family is still struggling to deal with the loss of their
daughter, while also waiting for answers.
“It’s hard,” said Richards. “I found her house key the other day. It
was worn from use from all the times she came home. She won’t be
coming home any more. I’m not even sure what I will do with the
report once I have it. But at least I will know how and why this
happened. And if charges come from it, then we have to let the law
enforcement authorities handle it from there. I don’t think we’ll
ever move from this, and I don’t think I want to. Our daughter is
gone, and that is a huge hole left in our lives.”
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