Lara disputes crash allegations, says report shows she was not driving double the speed limit

Local News

After the crash, police said Councilor Kendra Lara was driving 53 mph in a 25 mph zone. But Lara says she hired a private company to examine the evidence, which shows she was only driving 27 mph.

Earlier this year, City Councilor Kendra Lara crashed a car into a Jamaica Plain home. At the time, police said she was driving at least 53 mph in a 25 mph zone. But on Thursday, Lara denied those allegations.  

Lara told reporters that an accident reconstructionist company determined that she was only driving 27 mph. Lara hired The Crash Lab to review the incident and prepare a report. The company used information from the car’s black box to determine its speed at the time of the crash, The Boston Globe reported. 

The news comes days before the city’s preliminary municipal election, set for Sept. 12, where Lara will face William King and Benjamin Weber in the District 6 race. The top two vote-getters will move on to the general election in November. Despite concerns regarding the crash, Lara recently secured the support of the Jamaica Plain Progressives steering committee. 

“This process has been made more difficult by inaccurate statements and misleading information,” Lara said, according to footage taken by Boston 25 News. 

Lara and her attorney, Carlton Williams, spoke at a press conference outside Blessed Sacrament Church in Jamaica Plain Thursday evening. 

Neither Lara’s office nor Williams responded to requests for information Friday. 

The crash occurred on June 30, when Lara was driving her 7-year-old son in a Honda Civic on Centre Street. Lara’s son received stitches at a hospital afterward. 

Since the crash, it’s come out that Lara “regularly” drove to work at City Hall, despite her license being revoked in 2015. She appeared in court in July and faces charges including negligent operation of a motor vehicle, assault and battery on a child with injury, operating a motor vehicle after suspension, operating an unregistered motor vehicle, and operating an uninsured motor vehicle. She pleaded not guilty, and Williams has argued that the charges should be dismissed. 

The allegations were “dreadfully wrong,” Williams said Thursday, according to the 25 News footage. 

“Because of all the pain, the suffering, the damage, the misstatements, I would suggest to the district attorney’s office that all of the charges should be dismissed,” Williams said. 

Lara crashed into the home because a car pulled out of a driveway without warning, she said at the press conference, according to the Globe. She said she tried to avoid the other car but was forced to swerve sharply because another oncoming vehicle was in the next lane. 

Prosecutors said Lara was driving an uninsured car, and Lara disputed that allegation as well. She said that the car was insured and that she spoke with the homeowner to apologize and give the necessary information for an insurance claim, the Globe reported. 

Responding to the allegation of driving without registration, Lara said she had been driving her friend’s car that had an expired registration. The friend told a clerk magistrate that the registration had only been expired for a few weeks, and that charge was dropped, the Globe reported. 

“It’s an oversight that can happen to anyone,” she reportedly said. “And I don’t think that it’s an oversight that makes me ineligible to be in public office.”