Thanks to Ann Anderson for the photo. This is why California Way was closed for a while earlier this evening between Hamilton Viewpoint Park and Harbor Avenue – a collision between a King County Water Taxi shuttle bus and a pickup truck. Ann says that according to the SFD crew on scene, no one was hurt. Police were awaiting tow trucks as of last we heard, so the road should be clear by now.
That road is so narrow on that turn, I’ve almost been clipped by the water taxi bus in the past. Its especially dangerous when bicyclists are using the road and people unfamiliar with the tight curve of the road go into the other lane to pass the bicyclist. It would be nice to expand the road, and add a separate bike lane. It’s a very popular road!
As a regular cyclist up that street, it’s not practical to ride on the road, the sidewalk is the only place to be. I’ve witnessed cars drag racing side by side down that road and I’d not be alive safely back to my family had I been on the street.
Admiral Way will be getting the desperately needed bike lanes thankfully. This street isn’t suitable for that kind of upgrade. Too narrow.
As a regular cyclist, driver, and pedestrian on that stretch of California, I disagree, but sympathize with Themightyrabbit. There is not enough room for both cars and bikes on the road. However, the sidewalk is not an appropriate place for cyclists. Strollers, dogs on leashes, and all other sorts of pedestrians/obstacles travel there. With a 1 foot+ ledge, it’s not easy to just hop on and off. Like Admiral, an improvement should benefit all modes of travel with respect to safety. I’m surprised there are not more incidents there.
The accident wasn’t because of road width. It was because the driver of the truck involved crossed over into oncoming traffic and the shuttle had no choice but to go into the opposing lane to avoid a head-on collision. Glad that this didn’t amount to anything more tha a few bumps and cuts.
As somebody who has ridden and driven and walked that stretch, I call tell you that only those that don’t care for their well being would ride or walk on the road. Anyone that thinks that area can be widened….bwahahahahahaha
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Ride on the sidewalk, dismount when there’s somebody walking if you can’t ride by safely. It’s 3 seconds of your life, live with it.
Mike, it’s also only a few seconds for drivers to lower speed limits and maybe throw in some large speed bumps to slow drivers down. Because it’s sure as heck not safe to ride down the hill on the sidewalk and trying to stop/slow down when it’s not even that wide. I’ll take some speed bumps and a safer road than trying to share use of a tiny sidewalk with other users. The speed of a bike is a lot more comparable to that of a car, which is why they use roads. Going 20-30 miles an hour on the sidewalk doesn’t strike me as safe.
What do u do with all that metal when u get to where you’re going in your car?
Opinions are opinions, and I have my own too. I’m with SKap. That sidewalk is not a place to ride. If you find California too scary, I’d suggest Ferry, which also suffers from a turn but it’s quieter and you can be more aware of cars, I think.
Will continue to ride my bicycle along the sidewalk up hill as I have for decades as I do not use this stretch of road to ride downhill pedestrians it is three seconds of interference and thanks for stepping aside if necessary I will also and don’t mind a bit. This is at times an alternate choice of accessing north west seattle for this cyclist even if I end up heading south to almost the junction to my destination especially when it’s hot in the summer nice canopy overhead.
” Going 20-30 miles an hour on the sidewalk doesn’t strike me as safe.” You’re right, it’s not. That’s why you don’t got that fast. I watched a cyclist doing over 35 (because he was pulling away from my car going down that hill and I was doing 30). He nearly bit it. It’s not the most well cared for road. Ruts, curves, rocks, soil washed off the hill side from erosion. People need to star using their heads and pull them out of their under sides thinking the world owes them something.
Thank you for your comments @Monkey. Although out of town at the time, I was surprised to see so little on this accident on the blog (very unusual – maybe a busy news day?). I have a family member that was at the scene and doing ‘clean up’ well after the fact due to his work connection with the shuttle. There was much more to the story than was reported. Glad to see there are people out there that realize actions, not just road width, play a role in transit safety.
Sorry if we let you down but I can’t stress enough how much our operation relies on getting texted tips in real time, for everything except the incredibly obvious FULL FIRE RESPONSE dispatches of 20 vehicles. When this happened, I was offline – hadn’t felt well earlier in the day and finally after 10 hours needed to take a break to rest for a bit. We got one text, finally, and my partner checked it out, didn’t see in the dark that it was a county bus, was told the road was clearing shortly and that no one had been taken to the hospital, so he didn’t even tell me about it, and I found a couple e-mail questions when I woke up. If not for Ann’s photos (she sent a few but this was the best), I wouldn’t have had a story about this at all. If there is more to this – injuries? serious damage? – no one has so much as hinted at us about it aside from your comment. We cover a MASSIVE volume of news 24/7 (and the work we do is not just news coverage – we answer questions by phone, Facebook, Twitter, text, e-mail, forum post, that never turn into stories) with the tiniest of staffs and certainly don’t get it all – trying to decipher via the 911 log and scanner what’s going on, without eyewitness tips, sometimes requires telepathy; we really do depend on community collaboration. If there’s something you or someone else feels needs to be followed up, please contact us, even anonymously – https://westseattleblog.com/contact – thanks – TR
I believe the county contracts out both driver and bus as a shuttle service to water taxi so not directly a county vehicle nor employee driving.
To have any hope of finding out SPD info, I’ll have to see if somehow the incident number made Tweets by Beat. In the meantime, I did obtain this from KCDOT’s Rochelle Ogershok a short time ago:
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As you probably know, the Route 775 shuttle is operated by Hopelink through a contract with Metro. Shortly after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the shuttle, carrying 11 passengers, was headed up California Way from Seacrest Dock toward the Admiral District when the driver noticed another vehicle coming down the hill in his travel lane. Thanks to the operator’s quick action, he veered into the other lane to avoid a head-on accident. This quick thinking and action avoided what could have been a much more serious accident. Thankfully, no one on the bus was injured and damage to the shuttle was primarily confined to the front right side (passenger side) of the vehicle.
The Seattle Police Department did respond to this accident and the driver of the other vehicle was removed from the scene. SPD is your best contact for questions regarding the investigation and potential charges that may have resulted. Both Metro and Hopelink are very proud of how the operator of this shuttle handled the situation.
The DART bus that was damaged will be repaired. In the meantime, Metro’s contractor is using other available shuttles.
I actually didn’t know the shuttles weren’t operated directly by the county. – TR
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