Comments on: 4-mile closure, 5-hour backup: Followup #2 with Councilmember Rasmussen’s questions for SDOT and SPD; crash-investigation status

By: Ray Krueger

Ray Krueger — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 00:44:41 +0000

How comforting to know the new Police Chief has lived with a road tunnel too. Perhaps she was in place during that dig too.

When does she get to move into the big office and setup the personal photos? Will she be a sworn officer with a proper uniform for those special events when the brass shines brightly? She doesn’t need to wear a holster; she can carry a snub-nose 32 in her purse like female elected officers from my previous home town.

Let’s direct some of this conversation thread to her to see if she will blindly back the rank, file, and chain of command or take this as a top sidebar issue with the larger effort to have DOJ back off.

Perhaps SDOT or a private venture can be ready next time with a fleet of cargo bikes offering stranded motorists water; other cargo bikes could carry port-a-potties. Five hours is a long time to sit still!!!!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:37:45 +0000

I do feel sorry for those who absolutely had to use a private automobile for their commute that day and would be curious what percent caught in this jam actually fell into this category. Of the rest, those who could have used a commute method taking up less road real estate (bus, car/vanpool, walk, bike, watertaxi) but chose not to for their own convenience should search their conscience and take some of the blame for causing this serious hardship/endangerment and not just target the City. And a car driver blaming pedestrians for causing traffic jams (unless jaywalking)? Now that’s thinking with a sense of entitlement from inside the car-cocoon.

By: cleows

cleows — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:54:40 +0000

My thanks too Tom, will remember this come next election day. We WSeattle folk appreciate your action on this.

By: Bob formerly of west seattle

Bob formerly of west seattle — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 23:25:49 +0000

nothing changes, glad I am retired and gone from that traffic mess I am now one less car to clog the roads from downtown to west seattle. I too would have been very upset sitting in traffic due to poor protocol or bad decision making, no sense pointing fingers…fix it!

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:10:24 +0000

I could not have said it better than Valvashon..It was ridiculous to close 99 N of the tunnel

By: Leslie

Leslie — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:52:08 +0000

Thanks Tom, good job. Can we expect a daylighted report and council hearing in the future on this?

By: jeff

jeff — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 15:11:39 +0000

the city needs a better policy to move traffic, period! even for normal rush hour or special events that clog the downtown corridor. for example they could have opened all lanes intersections/lanes going south/north for 10 minutes, then switched to east/west for 6 minutes (roads are shorter those directions). get traffic moving! if it takes a rocket scientist to figure this out, then hire one. and no one has mentioned the congestion caused by pedestrians. i sat at one light for 3 cycles because the flow of pedestrians wouldn’t let me turn. I suggest that during certain hours of the day you give the right of way back to cars.

By: Kc

Kc — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 15:10:05 +0000

Thank You Mr. Rasmussen for your efforts, your simple questions are exactly the questions I had while sitting in grid lock 4hrs from the north end of the aurora bridge to the stadium area. We have heard the SPD upper brass say the closer was protocol to preserving the accident area and keeping the investigators safe, keeping SFD personnel safe while attending to the crash victims (they were out in minutes) after the arrival of Fire units the was all done to protocol. I get that! but after all that is said and done there was no reason to keep the viaduct shut down. I simple statement from SPD brass that hey we screwed up, were sorry, and we will do better next time makes this story fade into a bad day in Seattle traffic, But for the Brass to say we had to do it that way, just deal with it is unacceptable and will not make this go away. I look forward to the days to come has officials have their feet held to the fire. Again Thank You Mr. Rasmussen!

By: Born on Alki

Born on Alki — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 14:33:04 +0000

WTF….My point exactly. At least you have a nice view from the viaduct. Regardless, the closure point was not thought out and I commend Mr. Rasmussen asking common sense questions. I understand the need for lengthy investigations of this nature, but to close the road for miles behind the accident is insane. One would think there is a road closure plan in place considering how much money and time this city spends on emergency prepardness. How many millions have been invested to the EOC? Losing faith fast with the current administration. Where is the common sense and duty to serve for the good of the people? Or should I say “scumbags”.

By: Smitty

Smitty — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 14:08:10 +0000

Take a thousand pictures from every angle. Take video from atop, around, inside and underneath, and get the cars out of there! THEN start the investigation.

It’s called technology – and it’s not very expensive – at least compared to the thousands upon thousands of hours lost in this mess.

Maybe ala “bridgegate” we can calculate how many people died because their ambulance couldn’t reach them or get to a hospital as a result of this fiasco.

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 14:06:56 +0000

Hey Mike, I’d imagine by the time the tunnel is completed we should have those fancy Star Trek type transporters so they could just have Scotty “beam us up”.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:29:38 +0000

From 3rd & Broad to the aquarium on Tuesday was exactly one hour. There was also some emergency activity going on in front of Pier 55. After getting onto 1st Avenue there was no problem for me about 6pm. However, the only place there was any type of traffic enforcement/assistance was in front of Safeco which was going smoothly on its own. But, there were 6-8 law enforcement standing on corners and chatting. I wish they would have been in the gridlock on southbound Alaskan Way when the viaduct was feeding into it and all the intersections were blocked when the police cars tried to get to the emergency at Pier 55 to join the EMTs and fire truck already there. It was a long day for all of us and I agree we should have been able to get to the exits for West Seattle.

By: WTF

WTF — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 04:50:36 +0000

Born on Alki…. You hit the nail on the head. I guess the people who voted for that ridiculous tunnel have never been stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel.

By: valvashon

valvashon — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 03:33:33 +0000

Most of the posters here and also the SPD seem to be focusing on the accident scene and how to hurry the investigation along and what is happening in the investigation. These people are missing the point- if any one of us had been in this accident we would have wanted the investigation to be thorough. Who would begrudge somebody a proper investigation of their serious accident, even an investigation that takes 5-6 hours?

What we need to focus on is the SPD closure of most of southbound 99 through the city. Closing the highway two (three, really) exits before the accident scene is simply indefensible. If they had closed the highway at the most reasonable place- the West Seattle Bridge- many people would have been inconvenienced. But imagine the number of people stuck in the backup that were intending to take the Atlantic, West Seattle Bridge or Harbor Island exits before the accident. Only the drivers intending to continue southbound on 99 would have been truly inconvenienced, and this would have been little more than a traffic footnote for the day.

Instead, it has become yet another black mark on the SPD and has city council members asking tough questions, not to mention the social media storm. All that’s left to insure this incident lives on in infamy is a clever name. All the good ones are taken already- how about Marginalwayaccidentinvestigationpocalypse?

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 03:18:11 +0000

“Life without the viaduct may happen someday. Now imagine being stuck in the tunnel for three hours. Oh well, at least there will be large vertical Bertha repair air shafts every 1000 feet or so.”
.
vs. Jumping to your death from the Viaduct?