West Seattle Crime Watch: Hit-and-run driver sought

| Crime | West Seattle news

Lindsey sent the photo, hoping you might know who hit her car early today and took off:

My car was hit last night at around 2 am on 63rd and Marguerite. [map] I believe I heard the sound, as I woke up to a loud bang. Unfortunately I heard no further sounds and did not go out to the street to investigate. Police salvaged parts of the other vehicle at the scene. A black Ford, very likely 2004 Mustang, was involved. Please look out for a black vehicle with significant front-end damage in the area. Would probably be more so on the passenger side. Police stated they believe the driver to have been traveling at a very high rate of speed. Possibly 60 MPH or so.

We will add the police report # when we get it.

MJ October 21, 2018 (10:30 pm)

Likely an idiot drunk driver. I hope they catch the person responsible and make them pay for the damages and be cited for illegally leaving an accident scene.

dsa October 21, 2018 (11:26 pm)

That is either gas or coolant on the pavement. I doubt gas since the cops are just standing there. So if it’s coolant the other car probably did not get far but maybe out of WS, just depends.

Plf October 22, 2018 (12:07 am)

happened to us couple of years ago, turned out to be a minor,and could do nothing about it, police would not even tell us who they were or the legal outcome, at 16 you are still to young to be held accountable. Still ticks us off and to add insult. Wait for it …..our
insurance premiums went up the next year.

KD October 22, 2018 (1:47 am)

Any of your neighbors up and down the street have porch cameras?

DD October 22, 2018 (9:26 am)

Really sorry for your loss….hoping there were some active cameras pointed in a direction that provides identification of the car that hit yours. My car was also hit a few weeks ago, in front of my house in North Admiral. We’ve got a wonderful block of neighbors, but no one has security cameras. I’m thinking it may be time to take that step.

Rick Cook October 22, 2018 (11:42 am)

There’s a trail leading away from the vehicle so I would guess coolant also.

Sherlock October 22, 2018 (4:03 pm)

It looks like coolant to me as well. But looking at the photo more carefully, I’m not sure it’s from the hit and run drivers car. Whatever it is, it appears to have leaked out fairly slowly, over maybe hours or even days:

First, I don’t see any fluid splashed up onto the side or top of the curb, as one would expect if the spill had been the result of a violent collision, rather than a slower leak.

Second, there appear to be at least two spills, with a small, separate, almost perfectly round spill near the front of and under the Subaru. This also looks like a drip, rather than the result of a high speed collision, which would seem to defy the laws of physics anyway given the near perfect shape and position of the smaller spill.

Third, I also thought the tire tracks belonged to the perp at first. But if you’ll look more closely, there appear to be at least two or three sets of tracks leading away from the scene, and one may in fact belong to the perp. But it seems unlikely that multiple people would purposely drive through fluids leaking from a recent accident. If you look slightly to the left of the cop’s gun, the V shape was almost certainly created by two different vehicles, with one coming from the wrong angle to have been the perp. My guess would be that someone in the neighborhood has leaky car, and that there are other similar spills up and down that block, and that sometimes couldn’t be avoided when parking on that street.

Fourth, I don’t know why I wrote this comment, but condolences to the parents of the Subaru.

Craig October 22, 2018 (4:08 pm)

We had this happen near the Junction 2 years ago. I found the car that hit mine by driving around the neighborhoods near the wreck. The police said that it was probably a drunk driver taking back roads home. They were right. I found the car and police followed up accordingly, but honestly the guy that hit my car was in such a sad place in his life that it wasn’t rewarding to see him caught and punished, it was sad that he was this low. No winners, just unfortunate.

Anne October 23, 2018 (7:26 am)

This happened to us in Morgan Junction a number of years ago and it was a minor driving an older model Porsche that did not belong to him. We stopped him as he tried to drive away. Then his parents hired an attorney to get him off the charge on a loophole that the officers had not written down the correct RCW violation (like it should have been a B and it was C that they wrote down). We sat in court and watched it happen–SO mad and such a disservice to that young man.

MM October 23, 2018 (1:48 pm)

Hay neighbor. I noticed your car as I drove home Sunday afternoon and was needless to say shocked at the amount of damage. I took a couple of photos too, but nothing different from your photos. I hope the responsible person pays for the damage. They need traffic monitoring and cams on this stretch of 63rd because we find it to be a race track fairly often. My cat was almost killed here a few years ago. City of Seattle if you see this DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE SPEEDERS PLEASE NOW!

Delivery driver October 23, 2018 (2:02 pm)

Right now on the 9000 blk of 45th ave NE, black early 2000’s mustang. Damaged heavily on front passenger side. Hood tied down to stay shut. Spare tire on driver side rear though. Damaged tire laying on the back seat. Working in this neighborhood but a daily wsb reader and west seattlite. Hope this is a good lead. I’d ask neighbors if they have cameras to see when it was dumped here because it wasn’t there yesterday.

Lindsey October 24, 2018 (9:01 am)

Thank you for keeping an eye out. Do you know if it’s still there today?
- Delivery driver October 24, 2018 (10:59 am)
  
  Not working today but I’d check it out and take pictures if anything.

Sorry, comment time is over.