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News & ArtsFriday, January 30, 2009
News Major Car Accident on 15th Near Dravus
Posted by Megan Seling on Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 7:47 PM
Today, around 3:30 pm, two cars collided on 15th at Armour St. 15th is closed off in both directions and traffic is being rerouted through Magnolia (15 and 18 bus riders, take note). The street opens again at Dravus.
The scene is right outside my building and it is brutal.
A dozen units responded, including a heavy rescue unit. Officers are out there now photographing and measuring everything. There's no traffic. It's eerie and quiet.
Update (9:35): Everything is cleared—15th Ave is open to traffic in both directions.
3
I don't think anyone died. http://www.kirotv.com was the first to have some details on it and so far there is only 1 person in critical condition. I had to ride the bus home to Ballard through Mag-Town and the re-route kind of flung me into a flashback of snowapocolypse with all the flashing lights, flares and backed up traffic. But, yeah, lets hope everyone is alright.
4
I live in Magnolia and went to Ballard to grab some food at about 5. You could go north over the Ballard Bridge, but they had the southbound lanes of the bridge blocked off, so I couldn't go back that way. So I took Leary Way to get to the Fremont Bridge, like everyone else did and traffic was horrible. What usually is a 15 minute round trip took me two hours. I'm glad I wasn't anywhere close when that accident happened though.
5
Traffic in Fremont is just clearing up now. This blocked my usual way to pick somebody up, then I got stuck on Mercer in the backup from the I-5 crash. A 10 minute drive took me almost an hour and a half...
I hope the hurt woman makes it and the driver responsible pays a price.
I hope the hurt woman makes it and the driver responsible pays a price.
6
Both drivers were listed in critical condition earlier -- I'd say whomever's responsible is already paying a price.
7
True, but what I mean is those responsible should pay more than the innocent ones. I'm not calling for blood, just accountability.
8
According to police reports, the driver of a Toyota Hylander was speeding wrecklessly and weaving in & out of traffic. I feel very sorry for the innocent victims but can't help wonder why the rescue operation would take 5 hours, creating massive grid lock all over the city at the height of Friday rush hour. Just to put things in perspective -- it took less than an hour to rescue all 155 people from the Hudson River after the USAir crash. As a transplanted NY'er, I took pride in that operation and wish Seattle were better equipped to handle emergencies such as this.
9
@6,
According to KIRO, the police were interviewing the reckless driver at the scene, which seems to indicate that he/she wasn't seriously injured.
According to KIRO, the police were interviewing the reckless driver at the scene, which seems to indicate that he/she wasn't seriously injured.
10
@8 - it took more than that time to actually get the dang plane out of the hudson (three days, was it?). here, they got the people out as fast as possible, just like they did with those people on the plane, but it takes time to clear an accident scene. they didn't have the "convenience" of having the wreckage sink in a river.
11
@8 The rescue operation didn't take five hours--it was the clean up that did.
Before they could clean up, they had to photograph and measure everything. Unfortunately, that meant closing the road entirely because one car was blocking the southbound lanes and the other was many yards away in the northbound lanes. The wreckage was spread over all seven lanes (three each way and a center lane).
Before they could clean up, they had to photograph and measure everything. Unfortunately, that meant closing the road entirely because one car was blocking the southbound lanes and the other was many yards away in the northbound lanes. The wreckage was spread over all seven lanes (three each way and a center lane).
14
I got on the #18 bus at 3:52pm and got off at 5:30pm after driving for 2 miles. The accident looks horrible, but the Metro re-route was an absolute clusterf*ck. A little old lady on the bus knew more about the re-route than the driver. We sat at the Ballard Bridge for half an hour with no updates, then circled back to the bridge to wait for another 20 minutes before abandoning to Leary and Fremont. We might've traveled a mile in 40 minutes. I'd never seen Leary so backed up. Contrary to reports, we were not told that we might be on the bus for several hours; we were told nothing. I cancelled my appointment downtown, got off the bus in Fremont, and walked back to Ballard. And I'm still pissed at Metro... there was no plan and no communication. And yeah, I'm from Chicago, and even with an impeached governor we'd have handled this shit better.
21
I don't know if you know Marissa, this corner is the death corner. People just die there for various reasons.
My old coworker had to pick up the remains of fixie guy.
My old coworker had to pick up the remains of fixie guy.
22
There are dozens of car accidents a day in Greater Seattle.
By their nature -- with lots of bent metal -- they look very dramatic. Sometimes the human injuries are serious, sometimes not.
But, is this The Stranger's criteria of what is news?
A staffer looks out his apartment window after hearing loud noises, takes some digital pictures, never bothers to call the Seattle Police PIO or Fire Department PIO, and then posts some crap?
In real newspapers, they have real police scanners, and real reporters who call and find out what happened in an accident.
Of the many car accidents that took place on this day in the Greater Seattle area, this ranks about No. 78.
By their nature -- with lots of bent metal -- they look very dramatic. Sometimes the human injuries are serious, sometimes not.
But, is this The Stranger's criteria of what is news?
A staffer looks out his apartment window after hearing loud noises, takes some digital pictures, never bothers to call the Seattle Police PIO or Fire Department PIO, and then posts some crap?
In real newspapers, they have real police scanners, and real reporters who call and find out what happened in an accident.
Of the many car accidents that took place on this day in the Greater Seattle area, this ranks about No. 78.
23
@22 - This was news, because it shut down the only direct route from Ballard to downtown for 4 hours. I believe that was the point of the post. Note the information about where the road was closed and which bus lines were affected.
Or did you only look at the pictures?
Or did you only look at the pictures?
25
That's ugly. At least there are airbags in both vehicles. Remember that head-on is the worst and most common kind of crash. The combined force of the two vehicles is the worst combination. God forbid any of us go there, but braking and flashing lights can give the other driver time to recover and get back into their lane. If you swerve to avoid the oncoming vehicle, try to stay under control so that you don't spin out after avoiding the oncoming vehicle. And if the shoulder or ditch is available, take it; it's still a better option. If you go into the ditch, try not to lock up the brakes. That can cause you to roll over. Decelerate and brake slowly. If all else fails, any angle you can put on a crash to keep it from going head-on is still safer. Stay aware and good luck.
27
And before someone bitches about why "clean-up and measuring" took so long, the process that others mentioned above is a detailed survey of the accident scene, using engineering survey instruments.
This is in order to be able to analyze the movements of both involved vehicles in detail, in the moments before the crash. The survey will show exactly how fast the vehicles were moving, and other information.
That information is then used to determine what infractions the offending driver was committing (speeding, failure to yield, driving in the wrong lane, etc). So the more accurate the initial survey of the scene, the better job prosecutors can do later when charging the driver.
I agree with what was said by Amnt, I hope the driver responsible is held liable in court. It's a shame it takes so long to survey & clean up, but consider, all you people griping, the more thorough the investigators are at that stage, the better a case that the prosecutors can make later.
This is in order to be able to analyze the movements of both involved vehicles in detail, in the moments before the crash. The survey will show exactly how fast the vehicles were moving, and other information.
That information is then used to determine what infractions the offending driver was committing (speeding, failure to yield, driving in the wrong lane, etc). So the more accurate the initial survey of the scene, the better job prosecutors can do later when charging the driver.
I agree with what was said by Amnt, I hope the driver responsible is held liable in court. It's a shame it takes so long to survey & clean up, but consider, all you people griping, the more thorough the investigators are at that stage, the better a case that the prosecutors can make later.
29
To all you complaining about how long your damn commute was, just be thankful you weren't in one of these cars and shut the fuck up.
All about YOU and how inconvenient it was for you that somebody could have/may have been killed.
"But I'm supposed to be somewhere!!"
FUCK YOU.
All about YOU and how inconvenient it was for you that somebody could have/may have been killed.
"But I'm supposed to be somewhere!!"
FUCK YOU.
32
it was news because ballard was locked down, and fremont/aurora became a nearly impassible choke point. it was rather hilarious, though, watching all the pedantic morons w/ their wireless head sets honking their horns and yelling, as if that was gonna move traffic. i had never seen traffic quite so bad in seattle. i also don't know why people didn't just drive a few blocks north to go east/west. traffic was the usual friday rush hour traffic north of 45th.
33
derp - I meant to say fatality crashes, though side and head-on collisions battle for #1 and head-on is the most dangerous for all occupants.
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