West Seattle Bridge traffic alert update: Crash scene clear

(SDOT’s “live” cam looking east over the bridge; the westbound camera is out of service)
8:06 AM: A crash toward the east end of the eastbound West Seattle Bridge has backed up traffic worse than usual. (Thanks to those who have texted about this, but don’t text if you’re driving!) We don’t have full details but SDOT says it’s a multiple-vehicle crash, and Seattle Fire medics have been on the scene assisting.

8:26 AM UPDATE: SDOT tweets that the crash scene has cleared, so here’s hoping the backup will start to ease a bit – aside from the usual commute intensity.

WestSeattleDrew September 5, 2012 (8:22 am)

Take the 4th ave exit, right onto 4th, right on spokane and then the i5 north or south on ramp. Will save you a lot of time.

ws bred September 5, 2012 (8:42 am)

Summer must officially be over.

bridge to somewhere September 5, 2012 (8:47 am)

OK, so I was heading Westbound on the WSB and I saw what looked to be a basically small fender bender, but a backup that was bumper-to-bumper and not moving from the I5 connector all the way up to Trader Joe’s. That’s positively insane that one tiny fender bender can have that much impact–(kind of ironic that this is still the case after our newly widened bridge is open for business.)

Sue September 5, 2012 (9:12 am)

I just assumed it was “back to school” traffic, but didn’t remember it being that bad before.

JanS September 5, 2012 (9:28 am)

my thought on the newly widened bridge…they can add all the lanes they want…still, if you want onto I-5, it’s still just one lane, and it will back up, and people will jockey for position, and block lanes. It’s not like they added another exit to the freeway.

Sassy September 5, 2012 (9:35 am)

I was driving Eastbound @ 7:30am, and what we came across was not a small fender bender. There looked to be 3 cars involved – and the back end of one was a complete mess. Looks like everyone was ok though – saw 3 people sitting on the curb.

WSratsinacage September 5, 2012 (9:35 am)

bridge to somewhere, you read my mind, it appears the same thing was happening eastbound .. no accident visible but bumper to bumper from Avalon on Fauntleroy to I 5!

bridge to somewhere September 5, 2012 (1:17 pm)

@JanS: totally agree. That I5 merge lane is an epic bottleneck that would require mega engineering–including to I5 itself–to truly fix. One lane onto Northbound I5 is bad, bad, bad today–and will be terrible, terrible, terrible when the Alaskan Way viaduct comes down.

Rob September 5, 2012 (3:42 pm)

Scene:
Left lane backed up per usual to merge on to I-5 north. Idiot, loser, cheater, scum that decided to NOT wait in said line went to front right by where the exit to I-5 exit off WS bridge is located and sat there with blinker on. 3 cars in a row traveling east in right line. first 2 peel off right onto the exit to south bound I-5 and the third, not seeing the parked car ran right into it once the other 2 cars left the lane.

WSratsinacage September 6, 2012 (11:33 am)

Yeah, I loathe the people who can’t read the huge 10 foot sign “illegal to cross double white line” Or they can read it but think they are special. I’ve asked the WSP for enforcement of this area for the last year. I’ve followed up but still haven’t seen any troopers there since 2009 or there abouts.

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