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Photo Eric Williams
Flowers and photos form a roadside shrine to Zachary Boken on Route 6 in Wellfleet. |
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Route 6 rollover takes a young life
Eric Williams
BANNER STAFF
Bad news ripples through a small town.
At first everyone was wondering about the traffic. 'Something happened up by Marconi,' they said at the Cumberland Farms. 'Some kind of accident.'
The worst kind. The kind of accident that wrests a young man from this world, and leaves a community stunned. Wellfleet's Zachary Boken, 24, died at Massachusetts General Hospital last Thursday, from injuries he sustained in a one-car accident. The driver of the car, Jennifer Whatley, 21, of Orleans sustained minor injuries. The car rolled over just south of the entrance to Marconi Beach.
At the scene, all traffic was stopped. Even the bike path was closed, because that's where the helicopter landed. The Wellfleet Cinema would have been an easier place to set down, but it was filled with a flea market. The pilot did a heck of a job threading the needle through the pine trees. Rescue workers attempted to stabilize Boken, while the chopper stayed ready, rotors turning slowly.
They brought Boken aboard and took off. 'They'll be in Boston in 20 minutes,' said a firefighter. It wouldn't be soon enough; he died soon after, during surgery.
A Nissan Pathfinder slumped by the side of Route 6. There appeared to be blood on the steering wheel. Debris had been hosed over to the side of the road. CDs, beer bottles, shoes. A witness on the scene early said that response personnel had found a baby seat in the car and thought the worst. But there was no baby in the car. Something to be thankful for on an awful day.
Up at the Marconi traffic light, National Seashore Fire Safety Officer Dave Crary was directing traffic, trying to get things back to normal. He told me the name of the driver. I knew her. So did he. Jennifer Whatley is the daughter of Mike Whatley, longtime supervisory park ranger, and a nice guy. I imagined him in his office, getting a frightening phone call, or hearing something on the scanner. Every parent's worst nightmare.
Eclipsed, though, by the tragedy of Zachary Boken. A Cape Codder all his life. A good kid, said the older folks in town, and a good friend, said the younger ones. He was a locksmith and an artist, and he was really alive, really here, until that stupid car flipped.
That's what gets you. These were locals, who had probably ridden that section of road hundreds of times. Sometimes visitors get in trouble by Marconi, because the road gains two extra lanes there, to accommodate beach traffic. But it's just a mirage, and the road slims back down in a hurry. But these people knew that. And it's hard to believe that a car could get up to any kind of speed on a hot August day on Route 6, when traffic knots up, and bicycles beat you to Eastham.
And what about the safety belt? The Pathfinder was beat up, sure, but it appeared if Boken had stayed in the car it would have been a different story.
The days dripped by, and a shrine began to build on both sides of the highway. I walked over there from Gramma Gotham's restaurant a couple of days ago, through the mist. Flowers, and what's this? Photos of Zachary Boken, protected in plastic, clipped to the bottom of the sign. It was a sock to the gut. There was a kid, smiling and full of life. A flower petal was stuck to a picture, and drops of rain slid down the plastic.
A memorial service for Zachary Boken will be held on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the First Parish Brewster Unitarian Universalist Church. People are encouraged to bring a rock, stone or crystal to be placed in a walkway.
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Coast Guard Station regains full status
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Aug 17th, 2000