West Seattle traffic alert: Crash on Roxbury, 1 rescued

(1st two photos are community-contributed – thank you!)
10:59 AM: Police and fire are rushing to 26th and Roxbury, where a crash has closed westbound Roxbury and left eastbound with one lane open, according to the scanner, with radio communication describing the crash as one vehicle on its side with one person injured, apparently not seriously. More to come.

11:06 AM: Ladder 11 reports it has extricated that person from the crashed car.

11:13 AM: Added a photo just sent to us. WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand also is on scene now and reports that 26th is blocked as well as the westbound side of Roxbury.

He has just talked to Southwest Precinct Lt. Pierre Davis on the scene and was told there is a second car involved – a silver Honda.

11:34 AM: Added Patrick’s photo of that car. He says police are still sorting out the circumstances of the crash.

cjboffoli October 18, 2012 (11:08 am)

Are we going for some kind of record for car rollovers this week?

anon October 18, 2012 (11:11 am)

I’m guessing this is why we have a hovering helicopter over head in the area?

gil October 18, 2012 (11:12 am)

News chopper was overhead and left just now.

coffee October 18, 2012 (11:15 am)

This intersection is bad. People run the red ALL the time. I travel it several times a day and have a near miss at least 1 time a week.

WSB October 18, 2012 (11:19 am)

Yes, that was a TV chopper.

Walkabout Wolf October 18, 2012 (12:28 pm)

It sure seems like nearly every traffic accident of late involves a car on it’s side or roof…

WSratsinacage October 18, 2012 (12:39 pm)

Another day, another roll over. Sad.

datamuse October 18, 2012 (12:52 pm)

cjboffoli: no kidding, and more than one on Roxbury too, isn’t it?

Ex-Westwood Resident October 18, 2012 (1:15 pm)

Alot of the problem with the intersection is there isn’t a left turn lane and signal, so those making a left turn are stuck waiting for a space or the yellow to make their left.

That goes for both the N/S and E/W lanes.

WestSeattleDrew October 18, 2012 (2:09 pm)

ROLLOVER! Can WSB put together something showing the percentage of crashes that are rollovers? It just seems like there is a freakishly high number of rollovers in West Seattle.

WSB October 18, 2012 (2:22 pm)

I don’t know if the city categorizes “how” cars crash. There are MANY MANY more crashes every day than we cover … we go for the major callouts, and/or if there’s a major traffic effect. They’re not even all categorized the same way on the SFD 911 log … if it’s known immediately that everyone is ok, a rollover might “only” be categorized as Motor Vehicle Accident (I covered one like that over by Swedish Automotive [wsb sponsor] some months back) – OR a car crash might never make it onto the 911 log if it’s determined there is no need for an SFD/medic response at all …

Ex-Westwood Resident October 18, 2012 (2:24 pm)

Well with the amount of hills of varying grade that is to be expected, esp. when a car crossing gets hit on the up-hill side.
I wonder if anyone has traked the roll-overs to see if that is the case?

WSratsinacage October 18, 2012 (3:01 pm)

I feel that living in a thickly settled area doesn’t help but that has been shot down in the past.

karen October 18, 2012 (4:22 pm)

That is a very DANGEROUS intersection. I have to cross it every day on foot when I get off the bus. And almost every day I almost get run over by some yahoo trying to turn left off of Roxbury onto 26th who doesn’t bother to look in the crosswalk. I have been lobbying the city for seven years to get a turn signal there for left turns only and they say it doesn’t warrarnt despite the continued accidents–last one involved an SPD car

I guess they are waiting until soneone is killed there

dq October 18, 2012 (5:08 pm)

What was the model of the car that rolled over on its side?

WSB October 18, 2012 (5:29 pm)

DQ, hopefully someone else will know. I only have views from the underside. Co-publisher Patrick says it appeared to be a minitruck – possibly Toyota, Nissan.

Jim October 18, 2012 (5:29 pm)

SUVs have a higher center of gravity then sedans. SUVs also tend to sit higher than sedans as it pertains to bumper height. A sedan braking hard slamming into the side of top heavy SUV is like pounding in a wedge under the car. tire grip combined with inertia of the upper half of the SUV takes over.

rmp October 18, 2012 (6:58 pm)

Think I’ll by pass SW Roxbury this seems to becoming a daily thing! I wondered why my car insurance went up when I moved to zip coed 98106!!! Now I know!!!

Marcus M October 18, 2012 (8:22 pm)

Anyone want to start a Tumblr page? rolledroxbury.tumblr.com?

anonyme October 19, 2012 (6:03 am)

I cross the street in that area almost daily, and speeds in excess of 60mph are not uncommon. As I crossed with the light near Safeway last week, a car blew through the light at approximately that speed. Fortunately I saw him coming and was able to get out of the way – or I’d be dead. Enforcement, enforcement, enforcement.

jeff platt October 20, 2012 (11:23 am)

stop with the whole slow it down and safe it uplonger stoplights and or speed bumps will NOT fix stupid
people are getting dumber and i dont want to have to wait another 20 mins to get home because all of roxbury gets rechannelized for safty.
leave traffic flow alone and train people better at driving!

fiona enzo October 21, 2012 (1:29 pm)

Very scary intersection for pedestrians — especially as it gets darker earlier. Constant stream of speeders blasting through a solid red. I’m stuck crossing it daily now that rapid ride c and 21 bus dont stop by safeway on way to westwood end of route. :( Best to get light reflective clothing as only option to try to stop left turn drivers from running you over.
must admit that as a driver in seattle in winter, I am amazed that peds wear so much dark clothing — Including black umbrellas! Get your kids and yourselves in light colored clothing at dusk as one safety step.

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