Family of MIT cyclist struck and killed by truck files $30M wrongful death lawsuit

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The family of an MIT cyclist killed in a Cambridge crash last year is suing the company that owned the truck involved in the deadly crash for $30 million.

Minh-Thi Nguyen, 24, was struck and killed on the morning of June 21, 2024 while in a bike lane near Kendall Square.

Police said the driver was making a right turn and hit Nguyen. She was taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead at 9:25 a.m. that day.

Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Charles P. Blouin Inc., the HVAC company that owned and operated the truck involved in the deadly crash.

Boston 25 has reached out to the company for comment.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Middlesex County Superior Court by J. Tucker Merrigan and Matthieu Parenteau of the law firm Sweeney Merrigan.

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The family’s attorney said Nguyen was following all traffic laws when she was struck.

“Minh-Thi’s tragic death is an immeasurable loss for her family, the scientific community, and the world. She is totally blameless,” J. Tucker Merrigan, managing partner at Sweeney Merrigan who is representing the family, said in a statement. “She followed the traffic laws, she stayed in her lane, and she was wearing a bike helmet. There needs to be accountability for the 10-ton box truck that failed to yield the right of way and robbed the world of a brilliant mind and huge heart.”

Nguyen was in her third year at MIT studying for a PhD in physics, her family said in a statement.

She was “a budding quantum physics prodigy” who published multiple scholarly articles and was named a top-15 expert in the field of quantum computing in 2022, her family said.

“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.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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