UPDATE: Police searching for driver after West Marginal Way crash

ORIGINAL SATURDAY NIGHT REPORT: Police are looking for an injured driver who walked away after crashing on West Marginal Way near Andover [map]. The man is described as white, about 6′, 230 pounds, gray sweatshirt, and jeans, seen walking southbound on 16th. Blood in the car suggests his head may have hit the windshield, police reported, and they’ve found a “long gun” in the car. Also, police have told dispatch that there’s a considerable “debris field” from the crash, including barriers along the bike lane, with fluid going into the drain, and SDOT is apparently going to be delayed in getting there to help with cleanup because of an incident elsewhere in the city.

MONDAY MORNING: We followed up with SPD. They never did find the driver; meantime, neither the car nor gun was reported as stolen.

Rhonda December 10, 2023 (12:50 am)

It’s common for drivers and passengers with warrants to flee accident scenes.

Mr J December 10, 2023 (9:41 am)

Jeez. It’s also likely he has head trauma and is in shock. Why the need to go to such dark places?
- Rhonda December 10, 2023 (1:29 pm)
  
  Mr J, when we find drivers and passengers who have fled accident scenes they nearly always don’t want police contact for legal reasons. In my 11 years of traffic duty I never once saw an injured driver/passenger flee or wander off who didn’t have outstanding court documents.
  - Curious December 10, 2023 (5:27 pm)
    
    You ‘outing’ yourself as an officer, Rhonda, or did I miss something in your previous posts?
  - Mr J December 10, 2023 (7:46 pm)
    
    Cool. How many times did you experience this? Is there a data set you can point to so we’re not “solving” this crime based on feelings and hunches. OR – we can just not type our intrusive thoughts.
    - Jeff December 10, 2023 (8:10 pm)
      
      Come on man, you’re being obtuse. Fleeing the scene is absolutely the behavior of either someone with outstanding warrants, or someone going home to sleep off the potential DUI charge and then comes back the next day ‘confused’.
    - Mr J December 10, 2023 (11:00 pm)
      
      Nah man. No one on here knows what happened. The person could be seriously hurt, or in shock. We don’t know. So why do people always jump to these dark spaces and play detective. 1. Hope the individual is ok. 2. Maybe it was a DUI or they had warrants, but let’s stop at 1. And wait until the WSB gets an update. For all we know this person is a community member and seriously hurt. Treat them with respect.
    - ltfd December 11, 2023 (12:14 am)
      
      Warrants
    - rpo December 11, 2023 (10:03 am)
      
      What a horrible comment. “11 years of traffic duty” is far from “feelings and hunches”. This driver crashed a car and fled the scene AND had a gun in the car (and it was a gun that was too big to run off with without easily being concealed).
  - Sigh December 11, 2023 (6:48 am)
    
    You can tell who in this thread has never had a head injury or known someone who has by the level of cognition and planning they assume someone who has just been in a violent accident and hit their head on a windshield would have. I’ve been in a much less serious accident and nearly walked away, were it not for bystanders who stopped me to see if I was okay. Your brain jumps to come weird conclusions when it gets rattled. Making assumptions is absolutely unhelpful and it’s disappointing to see a former traffic cop call themselves out as one who likes to do just that.

Why? December 10, 2023 (8:01 am)

It’s also common for people with head injuries to be disoriented and walk away confused. Don’t assume.

Westy December 10, 2023 (2:41 pm)

Haha the dude had a long gun in the car and it’s Seattle… Pretty safe to assume these days.
- Neighbor December 11, 2023 (1:25 am)
  
  I own multiple long guns and live in Seattle. When I want to use them I have to transport them somewhere appropriate. This person could simply be returning from a legal shooting exercise. We don’t know.

Erik December 10, 2023 (11:04 am)

Did they ever find the driver?

drahcir61 December 10, 2023 (12:22 pm)

It’s also common for extraterrestrial aliens to steal cars but don’t know how to drive & when they crash they leave the scene for fear of being outed, forced to eat human food while in jail & then eventually deported back to their original home planet without the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones who took the journey with them & continue to live amongst us in White Center.