I already voted for him.

Well, that's what happens when you let "cars" drive on the thing: sometimes they have accidents. This wouldn't have happened had it been bicycle or pedestrian traffic.

I can see this from our office - amazing that it (thankfully) didn't take somebody out... the piece that fell off is from the exit ramp to 1st ave.

If Valentino Rossi had been driving that car, then it wouldn't have hit the viaduct. But otherwise I can't see how Rossi can stop people from running into whatever gets built there.

when that POS pancakes & kills hundreds no one will be laughing.

As a rapid Viaduct supporter and indeed lover, I will readily concede that highway construction standards were not in the 1950s what they are today. None of the ramps would be legal today, not by a long shot. What I find interesting is the theory that modern cars, being so much better built and engineered than cars of the past, and with so many safety features like ABS, air bags, crumple zones, etc., allow and even encourage people to drive less safely. ABS in particular encourages drivers to follow too close and to take too many risks cornering. I wonder if that kind of cowboy driving contributed to this event.

I'm also not happy that the highway folks are letting the thing be covered in vegetation, which is helping destroy the concrete. Seattle's nonexistent bridge maintenance program is a travesty. But it's not the viaduct or 520 that's falling first; it's the 16th Ave. S. bridge into South Park, which currently scores ONE out of a hundred on the Federal highway safety scale. Boat owners fear traveling under it.

For once, this would make for a totally legit attack ad if Rossi uses it. For Gregiore to sit back and allow the "advisory" vote to arrive at no conclusion was the low light of her term. If she's not willing to stick her neck out and lead on this issue, especially when she has the jurisdiction to do so, then has she really done her job as governor?

Oh, geesh, so now you hate Vines? Next thing you know you'll be against Vine Street and the great French pub/diner that you can see the crumbling Viaduct from, Fnarf ... just two blocks away.

Look, it's beyond design spec - it wasn't supposed to be in operation this long - PERIOD.

get it? some nascar driver has the same last name as dino rossi. har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har

ps wrestling legend macho man randy savage has a sex advice column in the stranger now LOL GET IT? SAME LAST NAME!

I was on one of the Viaduct tours this weekend, so it's doubly weird to think that I was walking by that stretch on Saturday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/csb13/2956023760/

Viaduct walking tour? Goddamn it. Why wasn't I informed? I would kill Will in Seattle for a chance at walking the Viaduct with a camera.

@6 so moral hazards exist in automobiles but not in other facets of the economy of our lives? like reducing the risk of ruin induces more risky financial behavior?

Fnarf, didn't you wonder why the viaduct was closed all weekend? You're right about the perception of safety making people drive worse. There needs to be some kind of fear-engineered car that scares the driver into thinking it is more dangerous than it is. They put unnecessary curves into long, straight roads for that very reason, to frighten drivers into paying attention.

Video tape showing people what appallingly awful drivers they really are works wonders too. Vanderbilt, Traffic, op cit...

(I would really like to know why some people hate Valentino Rossi so much. Jealousy, I guess. He's never been anything but kind to everybody.)

@5: Why not?

@14: perhaps i should say - no one will laugh for the first hour. then the recriminations, finger-pointing, and cruel jokes will commence. drivers will be blamed for using the state highway when they know it could collapse. voters will be blamed for rejecting all options put before them. democrats will be blamed for breathing.

@15, I'm not a Republican, but Dems should be blamed for doing nothing, they have control of the House, Senate, and Executive and they can't seem to get together and do something about? If that is the case then I do blame them, they have the power, they were elected to lead, and as of yet they haven't done anything.