7:20 PM: Westbound traffic on Admiral at Belvidere is being diverted because of a crash. We’ve just arrived in the area to find out more.
7:31 PM: Police tell us the driver of this car damaged a utility pole – it’s also clear they drove through some plantings along the sidewalk and in the median. The car lost a wheel along the way and left a long debris trail.
8:03 PM: The scene is clear.
The diverting occurred at 37th one block east of Belvidere. The vehicle wheel destroyed a tree planter and the vehicle itself ended up just east of Belvidere. The driver was escorted away from the scene in handcuffs.
Nothing has changed, actually it seems to be getting worse! Since we moved into our home on Admiral our car was hit, and of course the driver didn’t stop, this the second hit and run. Then our car was total while parked in front of our house. Then the car that we replaced the totalled car with was hit and of course the driver kept going, having done $12,000 dollars damage. Now when I awake in the morning I look out the window to if there’s a debris field around my car. People use Admiral Way as there personal freeway to Alki. And due the brilliant “defund the police” they don’t have the man power to patrol Admiral Way. No one has been killed yet, but it’s only a matter of time. If someone had been walking there when this happened there’s good chance this would have been our first fatality.
People in this comment section keep talking about how this same stuff has been happening for 20+ years, and yet you somehow link it to a mythical defunding. Brilliant.
Speaking of police, when is the West Seattle precinct on Delridge going to re-open? I recently found a live hollow point round and wanted to offer it to police there, but couldn’t. I think at the very least police need enough funding and staff to at least open a public interface point. It’s like the Seattle police now are some phantom force that just mysteriously (and slowly) show up, but you can’t reach out to them, except in murders. No wonder people see cops as not part of the community. They’re NOT operating in any publicly accessible way. The Delridge precinct seems more like a bunker than a tax dollar- financed public building.
Please list years in which the budget for the Seattle Police Department has actually been defunded in any way, shape, or form. I’ll wait.
Re people using Admiral Way as a personal freeway to Alki, Charlestown is pretty bad too. It may not seem like it but it’s a way to route to Alki via a couple of turns. Lots of speeding on Charlestown even far away by California Ave.
This location has been trashed by speeding vehicles several times over the years. That curve is not engineered for speed, and it should not be.
That curve has been hit so many times in the last 20- plus years that the last owner(s) changed from circular brick enclosures for those trees to wooden ones.What that curve sorely needs is a Guardrail!
What this curve needs are some three-man boulders to keep the cars from winging into the residential neighborhood and into people minding their own business there. Drivers need to slow down
Someone was killed at almost the exact spot back in 2010, surprised this car didn’t knock over the memorial candles that are still there from time to time. People drive WAY too fast on that curve, in both directions.
That curve has a negative camber which takes speeders by surprise & causing all kinds of bad corrections: losing control, drifting into the adjacent lane, etc… It’s still speeding that causes it all. Those poor planters get taken out every other year. I think it’s bad enough there that they should install a flashing red stop light at the bottom of the curve westbound & top of the curve eastbound. People go way too stupid fast there, tailgating you to do 50 mph in a 25 mph zone.
I saw the driver being removed from the incident in handcuffs! And I hope they are made to pay for all the damages, fortunately no one got hurt.
Doesn’t it seem that wheels fly off easier these days? Is that because of lower quality metal or are they engineered that way? That would never happen on an old Ford. Just wondering. hope they’re ok.
Actually, it wasn’t the wheel that came off. It was the entire right front suspension that was ripped off and the wheel, through some kind of miracle, remained attached.
This is a clear example why we need to further lower the speed limit for everyone. If the speed limit was 20 instead of 25 mph, this would have never happened.
That would further the already high speed differential between speeders and non-speeders. Speed differential is a major cause of accidents and an increase in the severity of accidents. Lower speed limits would be trading one problem for another.
AF. If the driver was arrested that means they were impaired. How would a lower speed limit stop impaired driving???
No, it’s been scientifically proven that all accidents anywhere are caused by speeding. That’s why we have to aim for even lower than 20 mph. Once we get to a standstill, no one will ever die.
Alan – actually the best way to improve safety on Admiral Way is raise the limit back to 35 MPH on the hill section that was the limit years ago that was consistent with technical traffic criteria and significantly reduces speed differential. The City had zero technical justification to lower it to 30 MPH and none whatsoever to further reduce it to 25. Admiral Way is a Principal Arterial!
There is no reason that the northwest direction of Admiral Way between Spokane St. and 41st Ave SW needs to be 2 lanes. In-bound West Seattle traffic doesn’t back up here until west of the bridge over Fairmount ravine. A road diet on this side of Admiral Way is long overdue. People speed up the hill because it is designed like a freeway. More space in the right of way could provide for a protected 2 way bike lane. It would be nice if there were something better than a steep staircase with a runnel to get down to the bike trail on Harbor/Spokane, though.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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