(Image: King County Prosecuting Attorney)
The King County Prosecuting Attorney can confirm what you’ve witnessed. Seattle-area drivers are driving faster and more dangerously coming out of the pandemic causing “an alarming increase in traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes,” the office says.
Prosecutors in the Felony Traffic Unit say they saw a 143% increase in felony-level traffic crime cases through May compared to the same period in 2019.
“According to the data, the years 2019–2020 corresponded with a significant spike in deadly crashes in King County that has yet to subside,” the prosecutors said in a statement this week.
That spike has continued to kill and injure hundreds — and land more drivers in jail. According to the release, in 2022 there were 151 traffic fatalities in King County, a 94% increase compared to 2013. In addition, 2022 saw 709 serious injury crashes — a 561% increase compared to 2014.
The prosecutor’s office says the data also show these traffic crimes are “experienced inequitably based on race and ethnicity, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color.”
(Image: King County Prosecuting Attorney)
King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion says in the release she created the Felony Traffic Unit in 2023 “to help address this burgeoning public safety and public health crisis.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says its study shows the pandemic lockdown increased speeding and risky driving behavior.
According to the county, key additional factors behind the increase in traffic fatalities and serious injuries include “an increase in drug alcohol and/or drug impairment, an increase in the number of drivers who hit walkers and bicyclists, and unrestrained (not wearing a seat belt) occupants.”
In Seattle, meanwhile, the police department has reduced its traffic enforcement efforts over the years as the city has emphasized increased reliance on cameras and automated ticketing systems.
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There’s no enforcement. It’s the Wild West.
The lack of foresight with Seattle leadership is insane. Nobody ever thinks about unintended consequences
Seattleites have always been bad drivers. Can’t merge ever. Watched a car stop on the freeway because he couldn’t get into the lanes next to him. This is not a public health crisis. It’s losers blowing it. Quit blaming the pandemic for everything. People need to be held accountable for their actions. And cops need to actually earn their overblown, unqualified salaries. Seattle has become a joke.
What do you expect when there are zero consequences…
It’s particularly threatening to the older and disabled as well. It’s difficult not to believe we’re just easy targets for some. I doubt adequate stats are kept for these groups.
As an older and disabled person and 30+ year resident of Capitol Hill … the only vehicles that have ever come close to hitting me have been aggressive cyclists. It’s dog simple to avoid being hit by cars. But it starts with not demanding they yield to you all of the time. Because they never do. And you will be legally right but still be dead.
The aggressive cyclists on the other hand have not only clipped me in the crosswalk when I had the right of way .. but on two occasions the aggressive violent white male cyclist circled back to start a fight with me when I called them out.
Road raging cyclists are Seattle’s greatest threat to pedestrians
So let’s ignore the many people that have been struck and killed by drivers, you’re two experiences with cyclists is Seattle’s greatest threat to pedestrians?!? That’s really delusional and narcissistic
Ban cars! Free mass transit and affordable housing for all! Tax the billionaires into oblivion!
Drivers definitely need to do better in Seattle, but some of the frustration also stems reckless behavior from pedestrians. Example, the other day I was waiting to enter I5 South on Yale Street, when just as the light turns green a homeless person decides to cross the street. No one was honking or commenting out their windows to hurry up, we just waited for them to cross. This has a ripple effect though, we now missed one light, and all other traffic trying to enter Yale St. is pushed back etc.
Yes Seattle drivers are bad, but we should be holding everyone accountable.
It is truly tragic that people moving here have no idea how to safely walk across a street.
GOP Sara sez don’t fault us, driver safety wasn’t part of our dog whistle platform.