Reader report: Crash chaos @ 40th and Andover

That’s just one of a slew of photos JF sent us from a chaotic multiple-vehicle crash scene by his house at 40th and Andover (map) on Tuesday afternoon. He says it’s a spot where they’ve been trying to get city help for “traffic calming” to slow drivers down:

Read on for JF’s account of what happened, and more of his photos:

That view might give you a little perspective on the neighborhood. Here’s part of JF’s story, before more wreckage photos:

This happened yesterday afternoon around 2:00 in front of our house. Driver and 2 passengers started skidding at top of the block at high rate of speed and took out 4 cars including theirs mid-block. Male driver & female passenger got out and ran, and one of the neighbors chased driver and caught him. Female passenger was still at large. One male passenger was injured pretty bad at scene. Police were a bit shocked at the speed and damage.

JF says they have been asking drivers to put islands on both sides of the block to slow down drivers, including those rushing by on the way to Holy Rosary School in the morning. “Maybe this will motivate both the City and the drivers to lighten up on the pedal,” he adds.

PSPS April 9, 2008 (11:01 pm)

I arrived at my house next to this about a half-hour after it happened. Eye witnesses told me that this was actually a police pursuit, with the small car already festooned with paint apparently from previously swiped cars on it before the crash.
.
Note to WSB: Check the police report on this the next time you’re at the precinct!

LB April 9, 2008 (11:15 pm)

I live on the corner of 40th and Andover and this is not the first major accident at, or near, this intersection. Cars race through this cross road at high speeds every day of the week. Usually two cars collide in the intersection. One year a car crashed into the tree in our front yard with major injuries to the driver and passenger.

In the past the city has refused to put a traffic circle or stops signs in. The increased traffic jeopardizes the safety of the young children living in all four houses at this intersection.

Anybody know how to kick the city’s ass into gear on this issue (pun intended)?!

B April 9, 2008 (11:28 pm)

I live further down and have almost been run over in the morning by moms in mini vans late for school. This sounds like it was another issue, but still something needs to be done about this street. Speed bumps would be a good start.

Kayleigh April 10, 2008 (6:10 am)

If I’m ever in a car accident and receiving medical attention, please do not take my picture and put it on the Internet.

Thank you,
Kayleigh (the stressball with the brown ponytail who is quite recognizable even while lying on the ground)

Mags April 10, 2008 (6:13 am)

This looks like it is closer to Genesee than Andover. Coming up the hill from Genesee is really blind so someone not on the right side could easily hit an oncoming car. I live near 39th and Andover and there have been numerous accidents at that corner, too (there are hills on 2 sides of the intersection and cars seem to come up them quickly to clear the hill and often do not yield). We have a petition out for a traffic circle, also. I have travelled to many places and this is the only one that has this amount of uncontrolled intersections.

amused April 10, 2008 (6:18 am)

This was not a police pursuit (remember, Seattle Police don’t pursue) and the cops caught both the driver and the female passenger, not the citizen. As usual, investigate before you type.

JenV April 10, 2008 (6:43 am)

typical WS drivers, blowing thru the uncontrolled intersections like they are the only ones on the road.
every day I avoid having my car totaled by some jerk by simply stopping and slowing at the uncontrolled intersections. one of these days i am just going to let some minivan mommy crash into me when I have the right of way and let my insurance do the talking….

Hainsworth April 10, 2008 (6:52 am)

I continue to enjoy WSB for all the info it provides about our community, but I also continue to question the need to publish pictures of crunched cars and people on stretchers. As I said before, I hope the next time I get rear-ended, my picture doesn’t end up on the front page of this blog. I know the argument is that this is what community blogging is all about: people hear the sirens and want to know what happened, and it’s not important enough to merit mention on local mainstream media sources. But the “Car Wreck Of The Day” feature seems to echo the “if it bleeds, it leads” strategy of the local TV channels, which I stopped watching long ago out of disgust.

shihtzu April 10, 2008 (7:33 am)

I agree JenV. My biggest pet peeve on the road is people who don’t understand uncontrolled intersections. I think the state needs a public service announcement about this.

This has always been my “thing”. When I was in college a mean, cranky old bat lady hit me in one of these intersections. She was sooo high and mighty yelling at me that I was young and at fault, blah, blah, blah.

She got the ticket!

karen April 10, 2008 (8:20 am)

As a minivan mom – gotta say, we are not the only idiots on the road. Please don’t think we all drive like that.
I agree about all the uncontrolled intersections – crazy! People don’t know what to do and often just will not yield. I stop or slow down at each one and more than once it’s saved me from a wreck.
Do you know that you get marked down on the driving test at the DMV for doing that? They told me it slows down traffic.

andrew April 10, 2008 (8:58 am)

I have to agree with Hainsworth. Report on the wreck if it is important news, but pictures aren’t really necessary on the WSB. Karen – you are right, we can all be idiots on the road, so let’s slow down and teach our children and newcomers what the right-of-way means.

flipjack April 10, 2008 (9:04 am)

I gotta agree with Hainsworth. There is a great number of positive community focused stories on WSB and that’s awesome!
But, these pictorials of tragedies I don’t think are necessary. I didn’t start reading WSB two years ago for the bad news. I can find that on the mainstream news if I want it. Yeah, accidents and fires happen,(even in West Seattle) but it doesn’t help the people involved if everybody in town knows if it’s just for the sake of knowing. The guy laying in the road I doubt wanted his picture taken, much less the other victims and cars.
It’s great to bring attention to problem areas, but possibly a less sensational approach might be something to consider.
I actually have stopped coming by as often to read the blog since more of this kind of reporting has been going on.
Not that I’m perfect by any stretch. WSB is surely impressive and really WSB you deserve great appreciation and success for giving so much to the community.

toomanyratsinacageakaWS April 10, 2008 (9:09 am)

I wish the city didn’t require a certain amount of accidents, lawsuits, or deaths to occur before a traffic calming device is installed. This reactive approach doesn’t do anyone any good. I live near a dangerous intersection and have tried and failed over 3 years to get any assistance from the city. I have witnessed 3 accidents myself .. who knows how many have happened when I was at work, etc. The city is pro density, pro development but anti planning for the increase in people, cars, and all that goes with population/construction increases. There are “too many rats in the cage” and this is just one example of what happens. Look at how much more crime we have now. Even incidents at high end grocery stores, for heavens sake! Peeping toms in WS!? Hello!!?? and many more examples of “growing pains” I’ll never understand or jump on the “lets pack more people into WS” bandwagon.

jf April 10, 2008 (10:24 am)

I hate to say it, but sometimes a picture is the only thing that will get the point across. I agree with what you are saying about the photos, but we took the pictures to show our kids that we aren’t just nagging them about looking both ways before crossing the street. I bet the shock of the photos has already made someone slow down and look a little closer. I know it has for me, personally. I’ll keep trying to get the islands on the ends of our block (Yes it is 40th, between Andover & Dakota). Unfortunately, I don’t even think this will speed up the process with the city.

WSB April 10, 2008 (10:24 am)

I appreciate hearing everyone’s opinions. However, these are important stories, and to decide we’re not going to show any visuals would not be right and would be withholding information even more than we already do, by choosing (as we did in our TV life) not to dwell on the blood/guts part of the scenes. We don’t spend our days running around chasing what is known as “spot news” in my old career – the scanner has dozens of WS calls per day and we only check out the ones that seem potentially major – but some of these stories, when we do happen onto them or receive reader reports, are compelling and important to tell, and the images are part of that. We do our best to keep some distance from those involved; as I wrote in the 35th/Thistle story the other day, we chose not to show the driver who apparently was not at fault, nor did I zoom in on the victim. And that’s just one example of many. This site isn’t just a blog – this is the West Seattle news, which we view operationally as something like an all-day cable channel (multiple channels, really, with the forums proceeding in parallel like a nonstop talk show) – there’s going to be the bad along with the good. Of the 100-plus hours we work on the site each week, the time we spend taking pictures of community events and feature stories – that no one else ever covers – outstrips the spot news about 99 to 1. And it’s all part of the “what’s happening in West Seattle” stream.

JenV April 10, 2008 (10:38 am)

Don’t go changing! You guys are the best and I personally appreciate so much this hyper-local news coverage. I always felt as if the local news stations did not even consider us part of Seattle. WSB is the first place I go for news- always. While I personally don’t want my picture taken for any reason- people: this is news. they would show it on KOMO, KING, FOX, etc. You can’t have it both ways- either the blog posts news or it doesn’t.

Kayleigh April 10, 2008 (10:51 am)

What’s actually *news* is always a matter of debate and perspective. Anything beyond knowing that an accident occurred, someone was injured, and that I might need to avoid the area traffic-wise—is not necessary and adds little value, in my humble opinion.

If I knew the person receiving medical attention in the above photo, it would be fairly easy for me to recognize them, given their coat, clothing, size, stature, and car.

Would you really want to see someone you knew and loved lying in the street with paramedics hovering over them, in a photo on the Internet?

JenV April 10, 2008 (11:11 am)

kayleigh- I will grant you that. pics of the victim are probably not necessary in the reporting of news.

WSMom April 10, 2008 (12:32 pm)

Just this morning a Holy Rosary mom in a white minivan barreled around me while I was waiting for traffic to clear to turn left onto Alaska from 41st. I was stunned to see her racing around me to cross a very busy Alaska St. just to make sure her kids don’t get a tardy slip. Good grief woman, being tardy is better than being dead!!

JenV April 10, 2008 (12:54 pm)

watch out for her, WSMom…if this is the same lady I am thinking of- she almost hit me in an uncontrolled one day and I honked at her. She proceeded to stop her car, get out and start screaming in my face about how her husband was a cop, he would F my world up, etc. She was beating on my windows. I called the police. She is a scary one!

Anne April 10, 2008 (1:10 pm)

WSB-Don’t change anything-besides-you’ll never please everyone.I really like the width & breadth of your reporting.If someone doesn’t want to see a photo-they can quickly scroll past it-for others it may have an important impact on them!
Keep up the GREAT work!

lisa April 10, 2008 (1:11 pm)

before we place the blame on the hr moms you need to remember there are several schools in that vicinity.

Redgiant April 10, 2008 (1:44 pm)

I live close to the corner of 44th and College in the Admiral District. We were successful in getting a ’round-about at the intersection of 44th and College through a strong, coordinated neighborhood effort and persistant contact with the city.

We were having many wrecks in the intersection as people would race around looking for parking and to missing the lights of the Admiral District. The ’round-about has been in about two years and since is was put in there have been no wrecks.

It can be done, 44th and College supports a bus rounte and a fire-truck route. Even with all that we still got the ’round about.

firwave April 10, 2008 (2:05 pm)

My burning question here is why does Seattle have all these uncontrolled intersections? They seem odd to me. Anyone?

wseadawg April 10, 2008 (5:14 pm)

As someone who deals with traffic mishaps as part of my job, I’m constantly amazed at the ignorance demonstrated by my not-so-neighborly WS drivers. Doesn’t everyone know that the person on the right has the Right of Way, and that ALL INTERSECTIONS CONTAIN UNMARKED CROSSWALKS WHERE PEDESTRIANS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY? (Granted I’m “Off Topic”, but this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine!)

Thumbs up for photos. Pics are worth 1000 words. Blur the faces if you must, but pictures drive home the point.

PS. JenV, keep doin what you’re doin. Don’t think your insurance company will fight for you if you let one of those morons crash into you. They’ll settle your case over the phone and lay 50% of the blame on you. Happens every day.

JenV April 10, 2008 (6:39 pm)

wseadawg- in my former life I was a claims adjuster…and you sound like one too! my commiserations….

JoB April 10, 2008 (8:08 pm)

JenV..

the woman who hit me while speeding up a hill talking on her cell phone is now trying to sue me for medical bills…

i was on the right.

she was on an arterial…

my car has never been the same..

and i had to actually fight my “good” insurance company to get them to investigate the accident and not raise my insurance for the first claim in 20 years…

Defensive driving isn’t just good for your health.. it is also good for your insurance rates.

and for the record..

i wish someone had taken photos. my car was much more damaged than i knew.. and the officer who came to the scene didn’t bother filing a report for a “fender bender”… and apparently had no notes.

add April 10, 2008 (9:20 pm)

I am a little mixed on the issue of posting photos – I like seeing some pix (for the many reasons already noted) but any photos of people who are hurt/injured that are too close-up are questionable in my book. I guess for me the biggest thing is, do we really need 6-7 pictures of an incident like this??? I see that the entry has been trimmed down to 2, which I like much better.

Just my two cents on the topic —

And – regarding the uncontrolled intersections – really, how much does a stop/yield sign cost??? Sheeesh.

add April 10, 2008 (9:23 pm)

Ooops – I just looked more closely and the entry actually still has the 6-7 photos. Don’t know what happened there – my eyes? The scroll function on my mouse? Sorry. But – my point remains – 2-3 photos max is fine and does the job.

JenV April 11, 2008 (10:05 am)

JoB- insurance is a nasty, sleazy business- that is why I left. It got to the point I couldn’t look at myself any more. If there are any questions I can answer, you can always email me. I think I still have some dusty old claims knowledge knocking around up there.

changingtimes April 11, 2008 (5:45 pm)

usually i love the pics but that looked like my dad,lieing on the ground there so i frantically called him and he told me to get a new hobby then reading the blog all day :)

Jake April 11, 2008 (7:40 pm)

The traffic circles definitely work – within the 3 years before getting ours installed (42nd & Hinds) there were no fewer than 6 accidents at that intersection – the WSHS kids used to fly down 42nd after school and would routinely be T-boned by harried Swedish Medical center folks or people flying thru the intersection on the way to California. Now our only issue are the jerks who drive “over” the traffic circle! The biggest culprits are the city garbage trucks – anyone else have this issue?

Sorry, comment time is over.