On June 21, 2024, Minh-Thi Nguyen, a 24 year old, 3rd year Doctoral Student at MIT, was riding her bike to her lab.  While she was in a designated bike lane, a Box Truck turned right into the bike lane, striking her.  According to witnesses, she tried to avoid the truck, but went underneath it between the front and rear wheels.  She was transported to a hospital in Boston, where she died.  

On February 26, 2025, her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in superior court naming Charles P. Blouin, Inc. the company owning and operating the truck, and Michael Fitts, the employee who was driving the truck as defendants, for more than $30 Million.  

Her family is suing for $30 million related to a wrongful death and $28,096 related to medical expenses, according to court documents.

The Blouin employee struck Nguyen when he turned right from Hampshire Street onto Portland Street, according to the complaint. While she tried to avoid the truck, Nguyen went underneath the truck between the front and rear wheels. The truck driver continued driving and only stopped when a bystander yelled and waved at him, the complaint said.

Nguyen, known to friends as “Mint” and to family as “Chip,” was in her third year at MIT in a physics doctoral program after graduating from Princeton University in 2021, lawyers said. She had multiple published papers and worked at a quantum computing start-up before attending MIT.

Nguyen was doing everything right. She was wearing a helmet, obeying traffic laws, and traveling in a bike lane.  She was blameless. Nguyen was one of three bicyclists who died in Cambridge last summer, which spurred an outpouring of support from the biking community in Boston.

“My heart aches for my daughter, who worked tirelessly her entire life, striving for success, only to meet such an unfair and tragic end,” Hieu Nguyen, Minh-Thi’s father, said in a statement.

by Gary Robinson – Editor, Publisher, AvidCyclist.com

Editors Commentary:

Bystanders, armchair quarterbacks, and keyboard warriors, all make the comments: “hope they get a huge settlement”, “hope they bankrupt the company with a lawsuit”, and so on.  I understand, and it is part of our justice system, but it will never be enough. 

Yes, there needs to be accountability for a 10 ton box truck that failed to yield the right of way.  Yes, the company needs to be held responsible.  Yes, the driver needs to be held responsible.  But no matter what the dollar amount, it will NEVER be enough.  

Having been a victim myself, when I was hit by a truck while riding, I can attest to it.  During the legal process, I was asked by a friend, “What is your number?”  He clarified that he wondered what would I take from the driver’s insurance company for me to be satisfied and feel I was made whole.  

There is no number.  It is like saying, “Ok, for $XYZ, I would do that again.  It is not about money.  There is no dollar amount that will make it OK.  Or for the mother of a 10 year old boy, Ollie Stratton hit and killed by a driver that was texting.  It will never bring back Magnus White, a world class cyclist killed by a driver who fell asleep and veered into a bike lane in Boulder, Colorado.  No dollar amount will ever take the place of personal loss on any scale. 

So, what is the right number? IT’S “0”.  0 deaths that could have been prevented.  0 deaths due to distracted driving.  0 deaths, and 0 tolerance for this behavior and society’s willingness to scroll past these tragedies forgetting that they were somebody’s daughter and sister, as I referred to in an article last fall:

Somebody’s Husband, Father, Son, and More-The Dehumanization of Cyclists

What is the number?   “0” Is The Number