(Image: Doug McLaughlin with permission to CHS)
Pike was blocked in all directions Wednesday night following a reported car vs. scooter collision that we are told resulted in serious injuries for the rider.
SPD and Seattle Fire have not released official updates on the incident yet but the investigation has continued into the night at the scene on Pike just above Boren near the new Starbucks roastery.
We do not yet have information on the rider or the rider’s condition. UPDATE: Seattle Fire tells CHS that the rider was a female in her 50s. She was transported to the hospital in what was reported as stable condition after suffering a head injury after hitting the car. The driver of the car was not injured.
The crash was first reported just before 5 PM. A sedan at the scene appeared to have damage sustained to its right-side back bumper.
SPD’s Traffic Collision Investigation team was at the scene collecting evidence.
Traffic and buses in the area were re-routed off Pike.
@jseattle police taking measurement. Honesty I’m not surprised at all. Crossing this intersection is like #Frogger. pic.twitter.com/V5gXVORJVO
— Seattle Transit Blog (@SeaTransitBlog) February 19, 2015
UPDATE 2/19/2015: While we wait for the official report from SPD, here is is a series of Tweet from user @TheBirdRoast that we’re told by those at the scene provide an accurate account of the incident:
think I might have watched someone die today. there was a woman in a hoveround at the top of the street, her wheel was stuck or somethin.. — Tindal (@TheBirdRoast) February 19, 2015
- so a group of folks stopped to help her, but she didn’t want the help and ended up fleeing from them.. right into the intersection…
- the hoveround hit the back of a passing car, and she went splat. the car was pretty fucked up + there was blood in the street. dunno if she…
- died or not, but the ambulance took her away and they came back later to collect her teeth. pretty sure she’s probably dead. pretty crazy.
We’ll update when we get more information from SPD. We’ll also check with Harborview to see if we can get an update on the patient’s condition.
UPDATE: SPD tells us the official collision report is not yet available. The complicated reports can sometimes take weeks to complete. SPD did confirm, however, that the victim was riding a mobility scooter in the crash and that her injuries were not life threatening.
Not sure how that happened, but that’s my picture.
fixing!
Appears it was an electric wheelchair. I just walked by and saw the wheelchair and overheard a Starbucks Roastery employee reliving the scene for passerbys. Says she lost control of the wheelchair going down that hill and flew out into the intersection, where a car clipped her and she went flying. :(
This is why we need slower speeds on our arterial streets.
Sh*t happens. The damage in a crash is the square of the speed — even a 5 mph reduction is a huge improvement.
Great comment! Yes, we need to build in more buffers for all of us to have moments of distraction or disability or sun in our eyes or whatever if we are going to live close together and share space. Lower speed limits would be a good start.
Completely agree, the cops also need to enforce the laws. Currently the only traffic violation I see people get stopped for is jaywalking, but you can speed around and run red lights as much as you want.
All of these statements are true, but none of them would’ve made any difference if it’s true the woman lost control of her wheelchair and ran into the car. Even if the car was barely moving.
If the woman lost control and was hit by a car at 30 miles per hour vs 20 miles per hour, the difference in impact is astronomical. It’s the difference between “oops my bad” and spending 6 months in the hospital and never recovering.
If you’re not familiar with the literature, this is a good starting point: http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/pub/HS809012.html
That would be true IF she was hit by the car. But she wasn’t. As the reports clearly say, SHE hit the car.
“That would be true IF she was hit by the car. But she wasn’t. As the reports clearly say, SHE hit the car.”
It would be the total speed at which they were approaching each other. The chair rear-ended the car, so this would roughly be the speed of the chair minus the speed of the car.
I looked closely at the car; it looks to me like a side impact (to the right rear quarter panel) with enough force to severely cave in the body metal and rip the rear bumper half off
I also examined her mobility scooter, and it was severely crushed in upon itself
And, yes, there was a lot of blood
I too thought it had the look of a fatality, but the public information is that she’s in the hospital with a head injury—not exactly lucky, but luckier than being dead
If the account that Aurea heard is true, the woman on the wheelchair scooter admitted that she lost control while going down the hill and flew out into the intersection. I feel bad for her and hope she is okay, but the preliminary information indicates that she is likely at fault. Are the wheelchair scooters even built to be safely used on a hill?
While 90% of my transportation is as a pedestrian, I have sympathy for the driver here. It would be an absolutely horrifying and devastating experience to hit someone, even if you are not at fault.
I was witness to her pathway down the sidewalk. Either her brakes went out going down the hill (Minor, just east of Pike) or something stuck the throttle on full speed. She was going *very fast* and screaming at the top of her lungs. I would hesitate to use the words “at fault” here.
Props to the driver for immediately stopping after she struck him, and the two docs from Swedish and Harborview who helped out until EMTs arrived. But a big boo-hiss to whomever stole my work bag when I ran off to go help. Accidents like this seem to bring out the best and worst in people.
Thanks for the information. Sorry about the bag :(
Huzzah! My bag was found abandoned behind Northwest School just to the east! Picking it up tomorrow. I’ve also spoken with SPD today about the incident and it sounds like they’re working diligently to piece together what happened.
Just to clarify, this was an electric wheelchair scooter, not a Vespa like scooter?
It was a mobility scooter. You can see it in the after dark photo above.
[…] Road diets save lives and don’t really impact traffic, so let’s have more of them. But Seattle still has way too many unstriped, hazardous intersections, as seen in last night’s Pike/Melrose collision. […]
I live over Tango and Rumba. I’ve seen a lifetime supply of tragic accidents in the three years I’ve lived on this intersection
Things I would change about it immediately (if I could) would be to reduce the speed limit between Terry and Bellevue Avenues—and install signage warning all that this is a notoriously dangerous intersection
Another (possibly controversial) measure would be something I’ve seen pop up at a few notorious rural intersections back in the upper midwest (my old stomping grounds): install white memorial markers—one for each person who met their death there
{As an atheist, I’ll take just a plain white square post (when it’s my turn).}
That intersection is already a disaster that needs a designated crosswalk and perhaps ANOTHER light. Surely it must be timed against all the others which is classic Seattle planning.
We need BOLD WHITE reflective painted crosswalks on all 4 sides of this intersection and a traffic light. Too many distracted drivers using their phones and speed limits mean nothing to many.
I agree. A traffic light would help.
To be clear from what I saw; this particular incident is not due to a lack of appropriate safety measures for motorists. Yes, those would be great, but precisely zero of them would have prevented her from zooming down the hill into traffic.
“so a group of folks stopped to help her, but she didn’t want the help and ended up fleeing from them.. right into the intersection…”
Although I could not see the collision from where I was, I can’t see how this would be possible at Minor and Pike. She screamed past me down the hill and then *crunch*. There was simply no time to refuse help until I arrived on scene and she wanted only to be helped up from the pavement. So unless this refusal happened further up the hill I don’t see how this would be possible.
I’m all for increased safety, but for the right reasons based on injury/accident statistics, not a reaction to a tragic but unrelated accident.
[…] were in the area around the time of a tragic accident near where I was co-working a few weeks ago. A woman’s motorized scooter may have malfunctioned and she lost control, crashing into the tail end of a passing car (thankfully, she survived). It happened in front of […]
[…] were in the area around the time of a tragic accident near where I was co-working a few weeks ago. A woman’s motorized scooter may have malfunctioned and she lost control, crashing into the tail end of a passing car (thankfully, she survived). It happened in front of […]
[…] were in the area around the time of a tragic accident near where I was co-working a few weeks ago. A woman’s motorized scooter may have malfunctioned and she lost control, crashing into the tail end of a passing car (thankfully, she survived). It happened in front of […]
[…] were in the area around the time of a tragic accident near where I was co-working a few weeks ago. A woman’s motorized scooter may have malfunctioned and she lost control, crashing into the tail end of a passing car (thankfully, she survived). It happened in front of […]