UPDATE: Driver taken to hospital after flipping stolen car northeast of Morgan Junction

(WSB photos by Patrick Sand)
8:04 PM: Big Seattle Fire/Police “heavy rescue” response at Fauntleroy/Juneau – at least one vehicle has crashed; per scanner, everyone is out, and the crash has taken down a streetlight post. More to come.

8:18 PM UPDATE: Just arriving at the crash scene; the overturned car is on northbound Fauntleroy just north of Juneau. Southbound traffic is still getting through, with an officer directing in the street.

8:23 PM UPDATE: Photos added. As it shows, the car flipped just off Fauntleroy, which is about to be reopened in the northbound direction too. We’re told the 25-year-old woman driving the car was taken to Harborview Medical Center.

8:34 PM UPDATE: City Light is on scene, evaluating the downed-pole situation. It’s not clear yet how long the crash scene will remain closed – depends on decisions involving repairs and investigation.

9:49 PM UPDATE: As of a few minutes ago, a tow truck was at the scene and the car had been turned back upright. The plate on the car in our photo was described over police radio as a stolen plate – we’re trying to confirm whether the car itself (which apparently was not the car associated with that plate) was stolen.

3:45 PM THURSDAY: SPD confirms the car was stolen and that the driver is under investigation for DUI. We also have an update on her age: 32.

June August 12, 2015 (8:37 pm)

Thank goodness no one else was hurt. My thoughts are with this young lady & hope the best for her. What a terrible accident

RachaelB August 12, 2015 (8:40 pm)

How fast was she going?!

MyEye August 12, 2015 (8:52 pm)

I’m guessing “too.”

HMC RICH August 12, 2015 (9:22 pm)

Traffic moving along fairly well at 9:20pm. Car has not been moved.

Savannah August 12, 2015 (9:26 pm)

I too hope the driver is OK! Horrible accident. ;(

I was driving home from work around 7’ish this evening and saw a man attempting to clean up graffiti, I believe, from the same pole that is no longer standing. Thank goodness he was still not in the process of cleaning! As a side note…thank you neighbor for taking the time to remove the graffiti! It’s so bad right now is WS (new construction sites and such).

AW August 12, 2015 (9:29 pm)

The car was going sideways just before impact with pole. Unusual wear on pavement a few feet before impact indicates a tire may have been spinning at high speed instead of braking. There was a long screech before impact but no rubber on the road.

West Seattle Hipster August 12, 2015 (9:43 pm)

Some times, road diets can’t prevent automobiles from being wrecked.

AW August 12, 2015 (10:08 pm)

Too bad that other thief didn’t run in my direction.
!!!**!!

soosan August 12, 2015 (10:12 pm)

Eyewitness account here is pretty interesting:

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2015/08/12/news/one-woman-sent-hospital-rollover-accident

rocky raccoon August 12, 2015 (10:21 pm)

I always have trouble keeping my car from overturning while driving through that area.

HMC Rich August 12, 2015 (10:33 pm)

A person who lives nearby told me that the car and a motorcycle were possibly in this together. The motorcyclist did not crash. Unsubstantiated but after the crash I was told the girl wanted to get a ride on the cycle but since she may have been in shock she was told to stay there and wait for aid. I think the police department will need to tell us what may have happened.

WSB August 12, 2015 (10:48 pm)

As always, we will do our best to get the report, which tends to take time (we finally have details from Saturday’s bank robbery, five days later, for example, and I’m writing that followup now) as SPD does not have an efficient system for making report narratives public – lots of stories circulate at scenes and can sometimes be wildly inaccurate – TR

Dan August 12, 2015 (10:40 pm)

Just went past and the car has been flipped back upright and hooked to the tow truck. Seemed like the tow truck was filling out some paperwork so the car should be off scene shortly. Besides the little glass clean up, traffic has been scarce so the offcier hasn’t really been directing traffic.

Enid August 13, 2015 (6:57 am)

A flipped car used to be a rare occurrence. I think you’d have to be going pretty dang fast to flip a sedan like that…

Kimberly August 13, 2015 (7:05 am)

The driver tried to flee the scene, but several good citizens prevented her from leaving, her brother was driving the motorcycle and came back to the scene with license plate bent down so it couldn’t be read…he sped off when he realized she couldn’t flee with him

Matt S. August 13, 2015 (7:58 am)

+1 rocky raccoon! I’ve lived in a few cities and have never seen as many flipped-car reports as I have in ~8 years here. So much flipping, it boggles the mind.
.
Too bad the graffiti cleaning samaritan didn’t procrastinate a bit, could have saved some effort.

skeeter August 13, 2015 (11:00 am)

Thanks for the info Kimberly. Sounds like there is a lot more to this story than just a driver that lost control of her car.

unknown August 13, 2015 (11:54 am)

Like I’ve said before it’s those darn magnets under these WS roads that are flipping these cars over!
:>)

Paul August 13, 2015 (1:15 pm)

Not to add more conjecture to the thread, but I overheard what I think was an off-duty cop (or maybe an ex-cop) talking to one of the other police officers at the scene (they apparently knew each other, hence the off duty/ex-cop assumption). He said he was behind the speeding driver, and a guy on a motorcycle was in front of her. He said he wasn’t sure if the driver was chasing the bike, or if they were racing, or what.

Anyway, the crash happened, she (the driver) got out of the car and ran—I don’t know if she was necessarily trying to get away; she was in hysterics and being chased down by some guy/Good Samaritan when I walked up—and a guy on a motorcycle circled around the area a few times. Once some neighbors sat her down on a curb nearby, the guy on the motorcycle drove off, toward 35th. The off duty/ex-cop mentioned this was the same guy-on-a-motorcycle who was in front of the driver before the crash.

For what it’s worth, the pictures don’t do this wreck justice. She’s really lucky she lived, much less was able to get out of the car and *run* on her own power. A few inches this way or that way, and this could have been a much more tragic story.