West Seattle Bike Connections joins in Bicycle/Truck Safety Fair

| Safety | Transportation | West Seattle news

Thanks to West Seattle Bike Connections president Don Brubeck for sharing photos from the Bike/Truck Safety Fair early this morning at Terminal 25 off East Marginal Way. T-25 is close to the scene of the May 1st bike/truck collision that killed a rider. Don reports:

Rain let up, and we had a good turnout. Very informative for cyclists to ride in a semi and experience the turning radii, mirror blind spots and stopping distance these truckers need. Great conversations between cyclists, truck drivers, Port of Seattle, SDOT, and BNSF representatives.

We really appreciate the work of Port of Seattle Transportation Planner Christine Wolf and public affairs representative Mick Schultz, and others from the Port in making this happen. Great to have Dongho Chang, Chief Traffic Engineer, Monica Dewald, and Jim Curtin there from SDOT. Our group had 7 volunteers staffing the event, and Cascade Bicycle Club sent Robin Randells, education trainer. Truck drivers Teo and Warren Aakervik were great.

The city is planning more improvements to the area by November, as updated here August 13th.

Christine Wolf September 6, 2013 (2:04 pm)

On behalf of the Port of Seattle, I’d like to add a big “thank you” to our corporate sponsors Ballard Oil, Charlie’s Produce, and McMillan Piper, who took trucks out of service to support this event.

Kudos also to SDOT’s Chris Eaves, who made sure all the barrels were in the right place…

Christine Wolf, Port of Seattle

J.J. September 6, 2013 (4:56 pm)

Sounds like a great event.

Does anyone know if fault was ever determined in the fatal accident? From riding through that intersection often, I believe either the trucker or the cyclist ran the light.

boy September 6, 2013 (10:10 pm)

Like J J, does anybody know?

Don Brubeck September 7, 2013 (8:46 am)

don’t know. This event was a way to respond to Lance David’s death without worrying about whose fault it was, and instead work on ways to keep it from happening again. The Port produced a good safety tips brochure for cyclists and truck drivers that I hope we can get posted online, and they are working on video from this event to illustrate truck blind spots, turn tracking and stopping distances that all bike riders and vehicle drivers should understand.

AIDM September 7, 2013 (9:12 am)

Thats great that the bicyclists got to ride in trucks and see how hard it is for them to stop and turn, but did the truckers get to ride bikes with huge trucks tailgating them and turning into them?

SGG September 7, 2013 (11:28 am)

I’ve been riding this section for 11 years now and never once experienced a truck driver driving aggressively or “tailgating” me. It’s definitely the other drivers on the road that concern me the most who are texting, eating, drinking, etc.

Ray September 7, 2013 (5:39 pm)

Totally agree with you SGG! I’ve seen cars driving at least 60 MPH down that road because one end or the other is plugged up by a train. Yet, there is only 1 speed limit sign on the entire road and I’ve not once seen SPD patrolling it. Don’t they understand how dangerous that road is ?!

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