Comments on: 4 miles of highway closure, 5+ hours of gridlock: ‘This can’t happen again’

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 13:16:54 +0000

this is what happens when bottom feeding lawyers get involved with police procedures. in the 60’s with boeing traffic at it’s worst , the roads were cleared in fifteen min. max.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 03:07:59 +0000

datamuse, sorry, there’s no excuse for how this was handled. Blocking off the entire city core of 99 did not help with their investigation at all. Honestly, I’m tired of hearing the responses of at least you didn’t die, at least you didn’t get hurt. The fact is that people die and get hurt every second of every day around the globe. You can’t shut down the entire globe. There needs to be some logic when handling these situations. More than likely, somebody else was hurt badly due to this backup. I did hear of a crash at the close off point at the battery st. tunnel soon after they closed it. Probably caused by closing it and people not knowing how to respond to the diversion.

By: datamuse

datamuse — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 20:04:48 +0000

I do not know what exactly goes into a major injury crash investigation–though I see that someone helpfully posted a link to the manual that describes that very thing–but neither does anyone else posting on this thread, as far as I can tell.
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A photograph is by no means the same thing as an investigation of an actual scene. It’d be like relying on a Google Street View to determine whether you ought to buy a house.
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I get that it’s frustrating. I was stuck in the backup on I-5 some years back when a state DOT worker was hit and killed, and it was three hours late for work. But you know what? I was still having a better day than that guy.

By: mpento

mpento — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 16:24:19 +0000

Yes, I suspect that there was a rich person or an off duty cop involved. I suspect that the 5+ hours to process the accident will be an attempt to overload the legal system with information. I have not heard anyone say “driver x caused the crash and drugs or alcohol were suspected to be (or were not) involved. This is the usual response one would hear in a head on accident. The lack of follow up smells. Save us from the coverup WSB!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 03:42:38 +0000

Any updates on the individual who had to be removed using cutting tools and a backboard? Hope they’re doing ok at this point.
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It’ll be interesting to find out more about this accident. I’m not particularly interested in how it was caused, but what part of the process needed to take that long to investigate it and why would they continue to close the entire core of downtown HWY 99 during the entire investigation. I could understand initially preventing drivers from accessing the scene, but then re-evaluate the situation and continue flow. Is there a center median that would block at least one north bound lane south of West Seattle bridge from becoming a South bound lane? I imagine they could divert traffic in a far better way than to just say ‘screw it, close up shop and let them deal with it’

By: ltfd

ltfd — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 01:53:56 +0000

FYI: Police Traffic Collision Report Instruction Manual – State of Washington

http://www.wsp.wa.gov/publications/forms/pctrmanl.pdf

By: jwright

jwright — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 00:46:03 +0000

datamuse,

What’s to investigate? What is the value added of hours 2 through 5 of the investigation? How does whatever that alleged value add is compare to the opportunity cost it inflicts upon the other 100,000 of us that are affected?

I’m going with Spock on this one…the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

By: sam-c

sam-c — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:14:49 +0000

that is it, you are right, no WSB at the time. I believe the traffic warning I had was from my spouse who took the bus into work early that day.

By: WSB

WSB — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:45:31 +0000

In reply to sam-c.

Maybe this one, 2006 (before we were doing news coverage) – sounds like this might have been a six- or seven-hour (if not longer) investigation, from the description in the story: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2003078447_webbridgefatal22.html

By: sam-c

sam-c — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:31:28 +0000

ah yes, I remember one early morning TCIS closure on the East bound WSB for a fatal car crash. (they tried to get over to the 99 exit after they already passed it and hit the jersey barriers) maybe 2007, 2008? that was significant closure impacting AM rush hour. a tragedy for the victims and their families.
I remember it because it was one of the few times I actually left West Seattle in the AM. I was 1.5 hours late to my doctor’s appointment in First Hill and the doc. freaked out when they took my blood pressure. but at least I still had a BP…

By: WSB

WSB — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:24:06 +0000

In reply to KT. TCIS investigations run several hours. Every time they are dispatched to a crash, we include that warning in our ongoing coverage. The night of the hit-run bike vs. vehicle on the low bridge last month, the scene was closed for 4 1/2 hours. Here's a crash from our archives in 2009 when the high-level bridge was closed four hours after a one-car flip. If I didn't have a zillion other things to go write and research, I could probably spend hours pulling up every TCIS investigation we've ever covered and give you the durations of closure ... will put that on the list. . By the way, not that you said it was, but in case anybody does a double-take, the "City Hall news conference" was not ABOUT this - somebody asked Murray a question about this yesterday while he was announcing the appointment of the newest deputy mayor. Which reminds me that we haven't seen CM Rasmussen's memo to Murray yet.

By: KT

KT — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:49:58 +0000

According to the PI…Seattle police spokesman Patrick Michaud conceded that the investigation was “on the long side of what an average major collision would be,” timing-wise, but not an extraordinarily long period of time… Seriously?

According to the Times…At a City Hall news conference, Mayor Ed Murray said traffic investigations and road closures are part of living in any city… Why do I have an image of Greg Nickles standing in the snow giving the city a B grade for their blizzard response?

Pretty much seems that the official response is suck it up, nothing we can do.

By: KT

KT — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:36:40 +0000

To me the problem isn’t with closing Hwy 99 per se. The problem that needs to be addressed is 1) why does SPD close a major road in a major city at rush hour without any apparent concern about the implications of that act and any actions to mitigate those implications, and 2) is SPD really completing their investigative responsibilities in a timely and efficient manner by deploying adequate resources and acting with an acknowledgement that the managing of traffic is also their responsibility.

By: datamuse

datamuse — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:11:27 +0000

Tony, use Google Maps’s traffic map instead. It’s much more reliable.
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jwright if I’m ever in a serious crash I’m glad you won’t be the one investigating it. Geez.

By: WSB

WSB — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:04:10 +0000

In reply to 15 minutes flat.

The ‘scumbag hat’ comment is in reference to this (not just covered here, but also regionally and nationally) https://westseattleblog.com/2014/05/funny-or-not-sdot-tweet-calls-west-seattle-bridge-drivers-scumbags/