By Owen Boss
Boston Herald
BOSTON, Mass. — A beloved 83-year-old West Bridgewater grandfather has been left with spinal fractures and broken ribs after his ambulance had to be diverted around yesterday’s protest on Interstate 93, his daughter said, describing herself as “livid.”
“I understand your plight, but it’s moronic to put other people’s lives and public safety in jeopardy,” Nadine McGrath, daughter of Richard McGrath, told the Herald. “I’m just so angry. I’m livid. You’re protesting police brutality and people losing their lives but you’re willing to take other people’s lives to prove a point? That just doesn’t make any sense.”
Nadine McGrath, 39, of Raynham said her father, who has been transferred from Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton to Boston’s Mass. General Hospital, was severely injured and had to be extricated from his car after he hit a patch of black ice in Easton and spun out into some trees yesterday morning. He was listed in serious condition last night, a hospital spokesman said.
“My sister just sent me a text with a picture of him, which is horrific,” Nadine McGrath said. “She said he has broken ribs, broken neck bones, spinal fractures and multiple contusions.”
Nadine McGrath described her father as “the most caring, giving, generous loving person” who cherished his seven children and 15 grandchildren “more than anything in the world.”
The ambulance rushing Richard McGrath to Boston Medical Center had to be rerouted to Good Samaritan after protesters shut down the highway, Easton Fire Chief Kevin Partridge said.
State police commander Col. Timothy Alben blasted the action at a press conference yesterday.
“People’s rights are people’s rights but you’re endangering people’s lives with this type of conduct,” Alben said.
Nadine McGrath added: “If something happened to him while he was waiting there, stuck, and in need of a trauma hospital, then I would feel like I would take them all in a cement barrel and dump them into the ocean.”
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