Shortly after 6:30 pm Friday, a bicyclist sustained life-threatening injuries when he collided with a Chevy van on Lake Washington Boulevard at South Orcas Street.
According to police, the van was traveling northbound on Lake Washington Blvd South in the van when he attempted a left turn onto South Orcas Street.
The 44-year-old victim, who was riding his bicycle southbound on Lake Washington Blvd. crashed into the van’s passenger door.
Seattle Fire Department responded to the scene and treated the victim before transporting him to Harborview Medical Center (HMC) with life threatening injuries. He is currently in critical condition.
A drug test on the driver of the van turned up negative.
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{ 13 comments }
I’ll probably take heat for this, but how can merchants in Columbia City think rail riders are going to make the trek over from MLK to Rainier? I was looking up the streets linking the two yesterday while riding the bus and thought to self, no way, it’s too far and too out of the way.
I wish them well, but what were they thinking?
Edna, you might find a more appropriate post for the comment
Are you serious? It’s sad to see that people like Edna are that lazy where a 1/2 mile walk is “too far and too out of the way”
I’m trying to get this straight, so the bike rider crashed into the van as it turned—meaning the driver turned in front of the cyclist. Yes?
Not sure why a drug test was performed. It sounds like just one more stupid, aggressive driver expecting people to yield the right-of-way.
I hope the cyclist is okay.
According to several council members, the Rainier Valley is the most dangerous place to be a pedestrian in the city. I assume this also applies to bicyclists. I feel really badly for the cyclist and hope he recovers well.
Edna’s right, cyclists like myself will not ride the streets to light rail……..after today, I am sure I will not ride light rail until I’m in dire straights trying to get to one of the venues downtown………although, I just learned part of the problem may have been they were only running two car trains. If they put Park N Rides in place and have larger trains, I may reconsider my position.
Tom A.
I pray the cyclist will recover. That is such a sad and scary thing. Sadly, I see things like that happen on L.W. all the time. It’s like a total battle between drivers and cyclists.
Putting yourself at the mercy of a hairless ape with a second-grade capacity for logic who is behind the wheel of a 2,000-pound weapon is not my idea of a nice bicycle ride in the park. So much for modern “civilization.”
May the Gods that be protect the rider who was hit by another hairless ape.
I don’t think that is fair to characterize this as a stupid-aggressive-car-driver event. We don’t really know what happened. What we do know is that the road is winding and traffic is fast (for both cars and bicyclists). I personally have almost been hit by both cars and bicyclists in the crosswalk at that intersection. I love driving my car and riding my bicycle along the lake, but it is not “a walk in the park.” You have to keep your wits about you.
And I did not intend to indicate that I believed the driver of the van was not at fault. A left turn in front of oncoming traffic would seem to be the cause of the accident, and would then be the legal fault of the driver of the van.
“Putting yourself at the mercy of a hairless ape with a second-grade capacity for logic who is behind the wheel of a 2,000-pound weapon is not my idea of a nice bicycle ride in the park. So much for modern “civilization.””
So you know the driver and what happened?
That location has nothing to do with the light rail; it is right next to Seward Park on the lake.
I ride along there very frequently. The intersection is very tricky (see this ), and this sounds like a left turn in front of the cyclist, but I haven’t read anything more specific about it.
But, sadly, apparently the rider has died since the original report.
Unfortunately, the much loved Jose Hernando was very seriously injured and was not able to recover from this accident.
He passed away on Friday, July 24.
Is it confirmed the cyclist died? Ugh.
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