Northbound 35th SW is blocked near SW Trenton because of that crash. The driver of the car that’s on its side hit the parked car on the right, police told us at the scene. No injuries, and a tow truck has already arrived, so this should be cleared before too long.
Are the cops able to check for possible cell phone usage post crash. I’m sure they check for drugs/alcohol.
Are there available statistics to show how many automobile collisions have occurred since the “rechannelization” of that stretch was implemented? Would be interesting to compare before and after in a similar time frame.
There’s a crash report visualization tool developed in collaboration with seattle neighborhood greenways. An amateur 3-year before vs 3-year after summary was recently done using that tool and mapped with tableau. Crashes are up, according to that data.reddit link to video, tableau charts/maps
Thanks for the links Joe. A quick check shows the top 60% in one small area of the single lane 35th Ave SW to be parked cars, angles and rear-endings, in that order. It will be interesting to dig deeper into the stats and find out how those three stats have changed since the re-channelization.
I’m not sure I follow. The visualization tool supports custom date ranges, which made before and after analysis significantly easier. The reddit link includes 3 years of post-rechannelization data through the end of September 2018.
It’s so sad that people are still using their phones while driving.
Where can one find stats for all car accidents in Seattle by neighborhood? I have never seen so many cars flipping on their sides since moving to West Seattle. We’re like the Bermuda Triangle of car flipping.
Somebody says that almost every time we report on a crash like this. Trust me from scanner listening, this is not a West Seattle-specific phenomenon. You just happen to be reading a neighborhood site whose publishers report on a lot of breaking news, flipped-car crashes continue. Almost missed this one, in fact – no heavy rescue (er, extrication) callout, no texts or calls, we were getting ready to leave to cover a meeting, and I happened to hear an officer mention on the scanner that this was a “rollover collision.” So off we went.
This is now the 5th car accident/crash/flip etc on 35th this PAST WEEK and per my count at least the 54th or 55th accident/crash/flip etc. in the past 2 years ALONE (never mind since re-channelization) When I say accident/crash/flip I include fender benders, rear enders, moderate to sever crashes etc. Show me all the “stats” you want, all I know is there has definitely been a marked increase in traffic collisions on 35th SINCE the re-channelization.
Have there been any fatalities? I think that’s what stats matter pre and post rechannelization. Slower speeds help save lives. I’m still concerned greatly at the number of crashes/collisions, though. The road diet works as intended for people who work to obey the laws, but there is still so much traffic aggression out there (using the TWLTL to pass drivers going the speed limit, running red lights, not yielding to busses reentering teaffic, speeding through school zones, rolling through stoplights to take free rights while ignoring pedestrians, and of course, distracted driving—just based on last week on 35th.) We need harsh penalties for traffic violence and violations in addition to the road diet.
I looked at the seattlecollisions.timganter.io tool, zoomed in on 35th, and selected for the past 10 years of crashes. I couldn’t find any fatalities on 35th in the phase 1 area.There are two recorded in the northern section, at Graham and Juneau. The Juneau crash is noted as speeding and the influence of drugs or alcohol were involved (and West Seattle Blog coverage from April 2011 suggests the person who died was on a motorcycle).
I can’t speak to “tools.” What I can speak to is the deadly crashes that have happened in the years that we have been covering West Seattle news, because we covered them all. The five people killed in seven years on 35th SW are all listed toward the top of this story:
https://westseattleblog.com/2014/10/1065-crashes-in-10-years-on-3-miles-of-i-35-safety-project-begins-to-create-a-more-forgiving-street/
The specific locations:
Two at 35th/Graham
One at 35th/Juneau
One at 35th/Othello
One at 35th/Dawson
There have been no deaths on 35th since James St. Clair in December 2013.
Thank you for the details. Of the 5 itemized, the October 2007 Othello crash that claimed Mr Clement was in the 35th Phase 1 project zone. It wouldn’t have been in my initial 10 year window, but it also doesn’t appear to be retrieved by the timganter tool even when October 2007 is selected manually. Good to know that either the tool or the dataset has issues going that far back. I did confirm that those 5 fatalities on 35th SW are all in the Seattle open data json.
Traffic channelization had no part in this accident. My car is the one on the right. The driver of the flipped vehicle was driving distracted & hit my car & flipped.
Cell phones can be checked. Would probably require a court order to get the phone record. Cell phone use while driving is rampant. The law is ignored. Stricter law’s would help but there’s no call for them. Too many people addicted to their phones-believing “other” people are the problem. If everyone complaining actually did something about it-calling the representatives-getting initiative signature’s etc law’s would change. Sorry-not going to hold my breath that anybody will do something.
I’m not convinced we need more laws. Just enforcement. The answer always is we don’t have the money but it seems as though you could easily spot enough violations to support the income of a traffic cop. IMO a cop hired just to enforce the “simple” stuff should be able to easily write enough tickets to offset the cost.
Even though there was dense fog yesterday, I saw many drivers paying attention to their phones and not the road. I also notice them veering into the other lanes of traffic, veering over solid yellow lines, making turns without looking and driving in the bike path. Just make a lane just for cell phone users and leave the rest of us alone
Sorry, comment time is over.
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