12:43 PM: Seattle Fire crews report extricating two people at the scene of a crash at 45th/Alaska. Updates to come.
(Photo added)
12:46 PM: Most of the initially sizable response is being dismissed.
1:04 PM: Scene still blocked; photo added. We’re checking with SFD re: injuries.
2:39 PM: Added another photo, from a nearby resident. Meantime, SFD tells WSB, “Two adult patients were assessed for minor injuries.” Neither had to be taken to a hospital.
As a close neighbor to this intersection, I’ve witnessed so many accidents over the years. Please stop at the stop signs!
This is one of many intersections on two-lane E/W thoroughfares in WS that has issues with visibility related to driver speed and hilly approaches. Would it kill us to get some 4-way stops on some of these streets?
I’ve said so repeatedly. A block south at 45th and Edmunds it’s the same scary situation. You can wait forever at the stop signs and still get hit by the fast cars topping the hill when you try to proceed. We watch the near misses and hear the honking and brakes squealing. Why isn’t the City of Seattle more proactive? Junction traffic is just getting heavier and ferry traffic uses 45th as well. Edmunds has four-way stops all the way to Fauntleroy, but not here for some reason.
Was just in the junction area. People are driving fast and irritated at people in the way.
This intersection NEEDS an All Way Stop! Horrible, dangerous intersection! The car did stop. Hill is very steep and cars travel way too fast up and down.
I agree with everyone commenting here; this is a really dangerous intersection because of the two way stop and hills+parked cars blocking visibility. Same for 45th and Edmunds.
I went along 45th last night to visit the grocery store and a lot of vehicles were parked within the 20 ft no parking setback from (unmarked) crosswalks / 30 ft setback from traffic control devices (like stop signs). The poor visibility at these intersections does make them even more hazardous when drivers on the EW non-stopping directions exceed the speed limits.
Better yet, we can start enforcing parking laws instead of just being aware of the probability that people won’t follow simple rules. We have a clearly marked fire lane outside of our building. People park there all the time. All day, all night. Why, because we have to (checking notes) slow down and be aware of the possibility of illegal parking.
Parking too close to intersections, crosswalks or stop signs is an epidemic in WS. I’ve tried for many years to get signs and enforcement to educate the masses to increase safety. There are just too many intersections and not enough parking enforcement or SDOT budget for signs. Although signs are not effective. If you look, you will routinely see people parking directly in front of signs that say no parking within 30 feet. It’s really bad on Harbor Ave at marked crosswalks in the summer and most intersections around the 3 junctions.
Per City online accident data the intersection incurs about one crash a year. Street parking can effect sight lines and should be restricted within 30′ of the intersection. All way stop is not warranted.
City data only includes incidents that are reported. Many people don’t want crashes on their insurance record and resolve incidents privately. I drive 45th somewhat regularly. All-way stop is absolutely warranted.
Also note that the city data has some location trouble – among other types of incidents, the spinouts by Walking On Logs, documented here by photos, dispatches, etc., are not quantified on SDOT collision map because the location doesn’t quite match up with what they use…
I agree! However how are we going to get drivers to actually stop, look all ways, and then proceed?
I lived in WS from preschool to HS graduation (in 1976). Left & returned in 1999.I learned to drive on these hills, & do not remember the high rate of accidents that we have now. I would like to suggest that other variables, besides lack of stop signs, are also contributing.
It’s insane how bad the rolling stops are around Alaska and also off 35th. In the Admiral/Belvidere area you guys are NEVER stopping. Always rolling out to other cars breaking the law speeding. So many accidents.
Here we go again – it’s always someone or something else’s fault for traffic accidents except the drivers who caused it. Here the consensus seems to be that the lack of a four-way stop (and some speeding, for good measure, as usual) is to blame instead of the driver who blazed through the two-way stop sign. So now, in order to remove even the tiniest responsibility of being a careful and responsible driver, we’ll add yet another obstacle for careful drivers so they don’t inconvenience too much those who pay zero attention to traffic signs and rules. I suppose it’s bound to work eventually: if you slow down traffic to a crawl, you can text and drive drunk and hit someone but not kill them. Progress.
“Add more traffic control measures to absolve bad drivers of responsibility” is absolutely not the argument that anybody is making now nor has a person ever made that argument at any point in history.
WSB commenters continuing to push the limits of human achievement in the field of bad faith objections to traffic safety measures.
It’s a lot easier – more expedient to blame “the” road or “the” city as opposed to the individual driver/s. Accidents occur to a variety of factors; there isn’t just “one” solution.
If the west-east driver was doing the speed limit and paying attention then they should have been able to stop in time. I live near there and north-south drivers zip across all the time without looking too. But if you are going 25, you can stop in time. and the the most dangerous intersection in that area is 46th and Oregon.
I live at the bottom of the Alaska hill, and often when I leave by bike in the morning I see cars turn the corner from 49th onto Alaska and just GUN it up the hill. I call it the Alaska drag strip.
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