UPDATE: Stuck truck atop Charlestown hill, now unstuck

2:47 PM: Thanks for the tips (and to Vern Murray for the photo). That moving truck is stuck atop the steep SW Charlestown hill west of California; multiple tipsters describe it as having “bottomed out.”

3:19 PM: In comments, Teri reports a tow truck has arrived.

3:48 PM: Todd reports via email that it’s now unstuck and has moved along.

19 Replies to "UPDATE: Stuck truck atop Charlestown hill, now unstuck"

  • David June 1, 2023 (2:51 pm)

    That’s going to be expensive to get out of –

  • Teri June 1, 2023 (3:13 pm)

    A tow truck has arrived. Highly recommend people take a different route from Charlestown right now as he will be diverted.

    • Molly June 1, 2023 (3:42 pm)

      Just passed it on our way to Madison and it was still there. And the tow truck was trying to turn off Charleston. Don’t know why any semi truck thought it could make it up that hill. I’ve seen several try and fail over the years

  • dhg June 1, 2023 (3:46 pm)

    I would like the city to take steps to limit the size of trucks on our streets.  They’ve gotten too damn big, they are hard on the roads and a mess in traffic.        

    • Chemist June 1, 2023 (9:23 pm)

      You want to ban moving trucks at the city lines?

      • Bus June 2, 2023 (7:03 am)

        When fighting zoning and development doesn’t work, just ban the moving trucks!  lol

      • DC June 2, 2023 (8:13 am)

        If the city made clear that trucks over a certain size were not allowed on certain city/neighborhood streets, movers could plan ahead and put the stuff in two smaller trucks rather than one semi. This is common in cities all around the world. 

      • Ferns June 3, 2023 (8:42 pm)

        Who said anything about city lines? City streets absolutely. Most cities designate safe trucking routes and put signage to deter or prohibit truck use of streets that are not safe for heavy vehicles. This is actually very common. Moving/freight trucks would benefit from marked areas that are particularly dangerous since the drivers are unlikely to be familiar with area.

    • Eldorado June 2, 2023 (7:16 am)

      …like moving trucks and garbage trucks and trucks delivering gas and fire engine trucks and Amazon vans and UPS trucks and…??? 

  • Bvd June 1, 2023 (6:59 pm)

    I don’t live in West Seattle but we get trucks like this trying to drive up a hill in our neighborhood every few weeks. Fortunately they get stuck at a traffic circle before they reach the hill, but that’s not much better! SDOT refuses to put up warning signs or diverters… they say they are ineffective but never propose alternatives and are fine just letting it go on.I feel bad for the drivers mostly, who clearly are not receiving the proper training on how to navigate a large vehicle in a dense urban environment. 

    • Odd son June 1, 2023 (10:14 pm)

      I’ve asked SDOT for help with this too after several trucks got stuck on Genessee going up the hill to Avalon. 

      • Eldorado June 2, 2023 (7:20 am)

        Who needs a sign to warn someone driving a truck? You’d think the truck driver would sort of see that there is a VERY steep hill ahead. 

  • susie June 1, 2023 (8:29 pm)

    Isn’t this an Allied Van Line Truck to which it was either moving someone in or out of the neighborhood? If so, how or where were they to drive the truck to load/unload it? Well I know not up the hill but just sayin’

    • Jose Flores June 3, 2023 (5:15 pm)

      As a moving truck driver, the company should have already included in the cost to provide smaller trucks to shuttle between the semi and the house. Done all the time. 

  • wscommuter June 1, 2023 (9:54 pm)

    Am I the only one recalling nostalgically the truck that dumped all the softball-sized steel balls down Yancy St.  by the golf course a few years ago?  This isn’t as good (nothing will ever top the video of hundreds of those balls rolling down the hill), but still you have to smile a little.  

    • AJ June 1, 2023 (11:26 pm)

      I don’t remember a steel ball mishap on Yancy, but you reminded me of the one on Genesee! https://westseattleblog.com/2018/10/traffic-alert-ball-filled-truck-trouble-on-genesee-east-of-avalon/

      • wscommuter June 2, 2023 (4:31 pm)

        My bad – thanks for the correction.  Epic event.

    • Odd son June 2, 2023 (12:53 am)

      I remember that and another truck that was stuck more recently in the same location.

    • Jethro Marx June 2, 2023 (5:12 pm)

      There’s way more to that story. I’m a little fuzzy on the details but apparently the mill balls were being delivered as part of a plot to kill a bird. The bird managed to peck open the doors to the tractor-trailer and the whole plan backfired on the would-be assassin. I do remember at one point when the balls first came rolling out, he was running up the hill to try to close the doors, but then he started running on top of the balls and going backwards. Wild stuff.

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