TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Tuesday watch; Beach Drive crash closure

(SDOT MAP with travel times/video links; is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE)

6:14 AM: Thanks for the text. Beach Drive is closed near Shore Place (here’s a map) because of a crash that damaged a utility pole, which will have to be replaced.

(Thanks to Randi for the photo.) SPD says the closure is expected to last a couple more hours.

6:32 AM: Metro alert because of the crash: “Route 37 is rerouted off of 48 Av SW btwn SW Graham St & Lincoln Pk Wy SW also Beach Dr SW, south of SW Jacobsen Rd.”

7:21 AM: Still closed (and this remains this morning’s only traffic incident in/from WS so far). SFD tells us that one man was taken to the hospital after the crash, in serious condition.

7:59 AM: Northbound traffic is now being allowed through.

9:04 AM: The new pole has arrived for installation:

11:31 AM: Just went back to check. Traffic now getting by both ways, alternating, with flaggers.

Herongrrrl August 7, 2018 (6:50 am)

A very loud speeding car heading south on Beach Drive woke me up just before 3am, and then I heard lots of sirens. Didn’t connect the two until I saw this. Hope everyone was ok, that’s a nasty looking crash.

WSB August 7, 2018 (7:03 am)

SFD is checking for us right now and I’ll add whatever we hear back. It was logged as a medic response rather than a “motor vehicle incident” (or, more common in similar situations, a “rescue extrication” which would have been a big response) and no texts until about 6:10 am (thanks again!) so we missed it in real time. – TR

Derek August 7, 2018 (10:16 am)

I was headed home from work in a Lyft around 3am and we came upon this accident just after it happened. We stopped to check on the occupant we could see was in one of the cars, and he was unconscious. I called it in, and the fire department was there in a few minutes. It looked like he had hit a parked car, but there didn’t seem to be anyone who saw it – only a bunch of folks who had been awakened by the noise.

Morley August 7, 2018 (2:48 pm)

I live nearby and apparently Beach Drive is a favorite late night speed zone and the curve around the 5400 block is tricky when you are drunk and speeding. A year or 2 ago neighbors who park on the street had one car hit, had it repaired then a month or two later it was totaled by another drunk driver.