

Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara clocked at more than double speed limit before Jamaica Plain crash

A newly obtained police report alleges that City Councilor Kendra Lara was traveling at a high rate of speed during “heavy” pedestrian and vehicular traffic when she slammed into a Jamaica Plain house late last month, causing her son to bleed “profusely.”
The police report, which was filed on July 5, finds that Lara, 33, was driving the Honda Civic involved in the crash at a “minimum speed of 53.41 miles per hour” in the road with a 25 mph limit, and could have been traveling as fast as 59.29 mph according to another formula that worked back from the speed at impact to the home.
An initial police report obtained by the Herald on the day of the June 30 crash alleged that Lara was driving an unregistered vehicle and her license had been revoked. It further alleges that her child was not in a booster seat, which is a violation of state law for children younger than 8 or shorter than 57 inches.
The new report backs up these same violation allegations and adds new possible citations: reckless operation of a motor vehicle, speeding, and seat belt violation, for which the officer has summonsed Lara.
Lara is scheduled to be in municipal court in West Roxbury on July 19 on the charges.
The new report also explains why Lara’s license had been revoked: she had a citation from Aug. 19, 2010, for “Registration not in Possession and Seat Belt Violation” and had her license suspended on April 9, 2013, for failing to pay the fine for the seatbelt violation.
While her Massachusetts license was suspended, she was cited in Connecticut on March 3, 2015, for which her license was suspended there. Massachusetts then revoked her license, because of a state law requiring “indefinite suspension … until the right to operate has been restored in the other state / jurisdiction,” the police report states.
A witness, who appears to be the operator of the vehicle Lara initially told police she swerved to avoid, said that he was preparing to exit his parking space to go to the library when he saw the Civic “operating at a high rate of speed from Centre Street and Ballard Street … he was afraid the vehicle was going to strike his vehicle” before it made a hard left and into 803 Centre Street.
The report notes “that from the photographs taken on the scene, no evidence of braking was observed.”
The police officer who drafted the report wrote that he went to Precision Towing and found that only the rear passenger side seat belt of the vehicle “was locked and could not be moved,” which is an effect on the belts when airbags are deployed, as they were in this case. The officer notes that the driver’s seat belt could be moved freely, suggesting that Lara was once again in violation of the seat belt law.
The officer “also observed multiple blood stains on the front armrest of the motor vehicle … as well as a small spot on the rear passenger side seat near the headrest.” While Lara “did not appear to have any physical injuries” her son Zaire, 7, whose name is redacted in the report, “had a laceration on his left eyebrow which was bleeding profusely.”
Lara issued an apology on July 8 in which she admits to being in the crash, adding “We’re all accountable for our actions, and I’m no different, so I offer my sincerest apologies to everyone, especially the people of D6.”
Joe Dwinell contributed to this report