A man was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries Monday evening when police say he made an illegal turn, and a light rail train plowed into the vehicle he was driving.
It was shortly after 5pm when witnesses began calling 911 to report the accident that occurred when the car’s driver – headed south on Martin Luther King Jr. Way – attempted a left turn against the red light onto South Myrtle.
The driver of the Chrysler was cited for a red light violation.
“People need to follow the rules,” said Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray. “We’re just glad it wasn’t more serious.”
But Othello neighbor and community activist Patricia Paschal says Sound Transit should never have gone ahead with the street-level option for the light rail train line which is scheduled to open in just 19 days.
“They knew it was dangerous and they did it anyway,” she said at the scene of this evening’s crash. “This is exactly why Save Our Valley did not want it like this. I think we can expect much worse than this. I’m just glad no one was seriously injured.”
Top three photos/Don Pham, Northwest Vietnamese News; Bottom three photos/do communications, inc.
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{ 52 comments }
Illegal left turn? Driver could have just as well caused an accident with a vehicle instead of a train. We can all benefit from light rail rapid transit options; we will never be rid of bad drivers. Reality check, community activists.
@whatevernick +1
I see more and more people running lights and making illegal turns because the light rail system has completely disrupted East/West traffic patterns. Sometimes I sit there for 7-10 minutes with no changes……it’s irritating to say the least.
What is really unfortunate is that I do not anticipate every using light rail……there isn’t any parking, it is faster to drive downtown, and the destinations are limited. If it goes Eastbound, I may use it by catching it on Mercer Island and using their park-n-rides……that way I can continue the journey to Redmond.
SSSL
@whatevernick +2
@whatevernick +3
Someone should inform the “community activist” from Save Our Valley that the train doesn’t discriminate when it plows into idiotic drivers.
I appreciate the concerns that were expressed by Save Our Valley about 10 years ago, but the fact is, we’re 19 days away from opening. It’s a done deal, and I would love to see people working with the community to get the message out about opening, safety, etc. Seems like a much mor eproductive use of efforts now.
Light rail dangerous? How about people driving like jerks? Shooting up the neighborhood with guns? Yeah, there’s danger around here, but it ain’t coming from the trains.
Wrong is wrong, whether it was 10 years ago, 2 months ago, yesterday, today, tomorrow, or next month’s fatality.
There are always going to be bad drivers on our roads. But bad drivers and light rail equals lethal accidents. I, for one, care more about my fellow community members’ lives than what it would cost to make this right. Besides, who would want to live within a 3 block radius of the whining, screeching, ding-ding-dinging of what was supposed to be a silent train? Sound Transit had the example of LA’s rail at grade but chose to ignore the data and research that pointed to DON’T BUILD AT GRADE. Period.
Stop immediately, Do Not Pass Go, and start tunneling tomorrow. Or do only affluent white neighborhoods deserve the safety a tunnel provides?
As an alternative, since businesses have been closed or are about to go bust anyway because of the negative economic impact of light rail (with no hope in sight), let’s just go all the way and be done with it. Don’t allow any left turns on MLK which crosses the rail line. Force all traffic to make U-turns under the elevated line on both the north and south ends of the line. We already have to drive as much as 1.5 miles out of the way to get to the business we want to patronize now – what’s a few more miles out of the way? What the heck if we are further inconvenienced in SE Seattle…they don’t seem to give a rat’s tail about us as is…may as well make it official.
luigia – The danger is from the criminal behavior AND the train. Check out: http://fixexpo.blogspot.com/2007/10/accidents-and-deaths-are-certain.html
Depressing to say the least.
At the risk of being a tad snarky (I’m sorry), affluent, white Bellevue is getting at grade light rail.
In all seriousness, if you’re serious about building a tunnel, why not do an initiative?
I hope he either gets fined for the damage he caused to the train and the light rail system or has his driver’s license revoked. I follow the law, but I see my fill of people who don’t. Red means stop. It’s time people figured that out – or they shouldn’t be on the roads.
@gidge +1
“Save Our Valley”- what a joke, never thought I’d hear that again! Are you frickin’ kidding me??? MLK was like driving in a war-torn 3rd world country before the rail was put in. I was embarrassed when my family visited, it looked like a 3 mile long jukyard. Now there are many good restaurants, businesses and public art, it is so much better. I used to have to drive to Cap Hill or Renton to get a good meal/shop. And there is a train I can walk to that will get DT or to the stadiums in 15 minutes and I don’t have to spend 20 minutes looking for parking or pay $7. And as far as this wreck goes- it might as wel been another car or truck if the driver ran the light. How can you not see a big train that is 10 times as long as a truck or car and 2x as tall, I can see them coming from several blocks away……
Look on the bright side- replacing that Chrysler will boost our sagging economy and the driver just learned more than any driver’s ed could ever teach
how about community service for the driver. he could spend some time on MLK educating drivers and pedestrians. I can see the sandwich board now….ideas anyone?
“They knew it was dangerous and they did it anyway,” she said at the scene of this evening’s crash. “This is exactly why Save Our Valley did not want it like this.”
This Patricia Paschal person seems less than bright. I hope she gets an education in basic logic before she decides to try to help (or quite possibly hurt) the world. Activism for the sake of activisim without a brain behind it is potentially dangerous to the community. Kind of like people voting for Obama (or McCain) without first researching where their campaign financing came from, but that’s another story.
There’s a reason why the light rail is called public transit, not “southseattlescarlettletter ” transit — it serves the general public. It transports people from one hub to the next. I’m sorry if you don’t find the light rail useful, but for us thousands of other residents who live within walking distance of the light rail it will be an awesome alternative to riding the slow and crowded bus lines.
If they train is behind you, it is more difficult to see, and very difficult to hear. They appear to travel close to the same speed, if not slightly faster than traffic, so I can see a car going South with the train gaining from behind making an (illegal) left turn in front of the train and getting hit. I don’t know if that’s what happened in this situation. I still think crossing guards might be a good idea.
As far as the appearance of MLK, it looks a million percent better than it used to. I would have liked a tunnel, but MLK does look almost swank now.
The traffic light delay can be long. I sat in a huge line of cars the other day trying to get from MLK on to Renton Avenue.
And now I have to make a u-turn to buy an icecream cone. Of course I could have them toss the icecream cone over the tracks to me.
What worries me is I STILL see so many people darting across the tracks like it’s nothing.
@Bob + 1
@jimmytwilight + 1
@Pat Murakami – 5 (Bad drivers and light rail = lethal accidents? Do you have an equation that includes Bad Drivers that DOES NOT equal lethal?)
@BadDrivers – 2 (-1 on MLK, -1 on Aloha in Cap Hill that hit a family – http://bit.ly/7En2i – shouldahadatunnel for those pedestrians)
Living four blocks away, I can hear the bells and train coming, so you’d have to be completely out of touch with your surroundings to not see a train coming. At the end of the day, there will always be people who go in the deep end at pools who can’t swim and then claim they weren’t notified, there will always be people who order hot cups of coffee then proceed to dump it on themselves and sue because they didn’t have fair warning that it was hot, and there will be idiots who make illegal turns into oncoming traffic. Whether or not those fools make it through unscathed, get hit by a car, a train, a bus, or hit a cyclist or pedestrian, they’re still in the wrong.
Hopefully, for the drivers of the trains sake, folks can develop a Pavlovian reaction to the bells sooner than later and NOT cross the tracks.
@Pat, let’s try and make lemonade, shall we?
So, do we continue the never-ending could’a would’a should’a debate, or make a refreshing beverage, as some have suggested. Personally my lemonAID will need a little rum….
anyway
I think it is useful to allow some “I toldya so” from our local oracles. But only if we turn that into empowerment to demand some fine tuning of the final product.
How many accidents have we had in “testing mode”? How many do they need to determine that we’ve failed the “test”. Bad drivers = Darwin at Work? Or community full of people with very diverse backgrounds and its fair share of folks FOB = trouble.
Personally at 18 with a car full of friends blasting Duran Duran from my speakers, this could’a been me. Or now, my immigrant-past AARP aged Mom who gets confused by a flashing red light…could’a been her. Does that mean we should’a been off the road? Maybe. But that’s another could’a should’a would’a. After all, can’t we all identify with that one moment we weren’t the driver’s ed model of perfection?
And as for hearing the bells four blocks away, personally the sound of my kids in my car could drown out the roar of a 747. And the bells and lights obviously are not enough, chalk it up to sensory over-stimulation or something…
SO maybe for a while at least we will need real live people to direct traffic. Maybe we need to help Pavlov along a bit, maybe we offer biscuits for intersection success…
Let’s ask that Retired SPD officers be offered back on payroll for a while to stand around and babysit traffic until we reach a stage of Comprehension Critical Mass. Any other ideas?
I am visiting my sister in Phoenix, where the light rail runs at grade, at least in the area where she lives. It runs, at grade, right through the heart of the university district of ASU. From what I’ve seen of it, it’s heavily used and I’m told that people trying to cross in front, walking on the tracks or trying to catch a free ride are heavily fined, and there have been few problems. And Boston has had a-grade trains for decades…this isn’t an unsolvable problem.
Also, my family is moving, on purpose, into the Rainier Valley BEACUSE of light rail in part. Since my husband works downtown, he will get to work faster than he does on just a bus now. He’s prepared to catch a bus to light rail-the whole point is having no park and rides-just like in Boston and Phoenix-it’s about multiple public transit systems working in concert to ease traffic. Besides, who’s stupid enough to pay for parking downtown all day every day?
Hey Patricia Paschal – Maybe we should all use finger paints instead of dangerously sharp pens and pencils. We need guard rails next to all sidewalks so people don’t fall off. Maybe also a sniffle task force to make sure Sound Transit did plant any plants that someone may be allergic to.
Please! People need to take responsibility for their own actions. Whiny babies.
Ahow – the traffic lights are timed to allow the trains passage through intersections. The accidents have happened when people have made illegal u-turns (turning where NO TURNS are allowed EVER) or have run lights. Why make excuses for stupidity? This has nothing to do with listening to ‘Duran Duran’ loudly. A deaf person could easily navigate it safely just by following posted signs and street lights.
I live close. All day I hear ding, ding, ding, clang, clang, clang, even while indoors. It seems SeaTac has added a new flight path and the mingling of the sounds of jets taking off, with that of the many, many test trains is annoying as hell. Nope, I can’t do anything about it. But, it was supposed to be silent. Ha!
I take buses on MLK and have observed traffic backed up to make way for the trains. I hope it’s not going to be like this when they’re operational. I for one don’t plan on using the Light Rail.
Oh, and Tiffany, you obviously don’t live in the area.
@iTea “Living four blocks away, I can hear the bells and train coming” –
ditto! (no more noise please!)
It seems not a matter of it not being obvious a train is coming, but rather drivers and peds who are used to breaking the rules and getting away with it.
Tiffany-
Maybe you’re right. Let them eat cake. Or train grill.
My point is if “going live” is anything like the rehearsal, and injuries and fatalities ensue… Surely this will be deemed a massive failure of public safety management, and more bad PR for SE Seattle.
How do we want this to go down? If I am in the minority on this, I’m totally willing to take my place as the odd woman out and accept future incidents as Population Stupidity Control. Let the majority rule.
I for one know that despite a driving record that includes nary a parking ticket, I’ve had my moments… And we appear to have a pattern of people ‘having moments’ with this system (including at least one professional driver I might recall).
So, if we’re practicing PSC around here…I request tire busters around the islands in the turn lane on Rainier. I’m tired of seeing passers use this lane while mowing down the signage. I’d like some more severe recourse to satisfy my elevated sense of indignation.
Pavlov theory needs a little SPANK to it.
btw – up until 2 months ago I lived a block from the CC station. Have you seen the little house on the corner of Alaska/33rd with the ‘sold’ sign? That was me. Over the past 7 years I’ve dealt with threats of eminent domain, week-long jackhammering outside my house that STARTED at 3am, sleepless nights of construction, the ‘ding ding ding’ — all of it. I’m assuming I was closer to all this than Edna ever will be.
In my new house I’m still within 3.5 blocks of the line and can hear the cars. It doesn’t bother me. Whiners bother me.
ps @ JustWondering-You speak to a general malaise of our society, I believe.
I liked someone’s idea of heavy fine-age to back up the signage. I just think we need more help than blinking lights and louder bells to direct people around at least at first.
Yes we are like a strange episode of Star Trek, discovering a race of child-adults. We won’t be changing that overnight. And managing traffic around these intersections will be like herding cats, at least for a while.
I for one feel the dress rehearsal has revealed a need for some further incident minimization efforts. I am afraid it seems we need some training wheels, with the goal of taking them off eventually. But for now this looks like trouble.
Imagine for a moment the first kid that gets hit and killed. Will you be willing to call them out as a “stupid pedestrian”? Or say their parents deserve a dead kid for whatever mistake they made crossing MLK?
Now before you accuse me of being the weepy eyed coddler of the stupid, I’m not saying we mitigate the one tear-jerker death or injury by boring new tunnels or anything outrageous or unrealistic like that… I do think there is a limit to what the whole can bear as a burden for the one…Just some additional traffic management and direction to help locals “get it”, ’cause they ain’t gettin’ it. apparently.
Hi, Tiff!
Your humble servant and neighbor….
I’ve heard the clang clang of the bells as well, and because of this, would not want to live near the tracks. On the other hand, when I’m in my car, it is difficult to hear the train. My hearing is good, but road noise from my car and surrounding cars blends with the train noise. If you are traveling in the same direction as the train, the sound of the train can be difficult to pick up. And it seems that by the time the trains’s bells start ringing, the train is already going through the intersection. Where are the bells located anyhow? Are they on the train, or at the trackside? The flashing lightrail sign doesn’t really get my attention for some reason.
Yes, you can hear the train. Yes, their are a lot of planes over head too. guess what? we live in seattle, not the BFE. there is noise in the city. you should complain about gun shots and illegal fireworks all year long. those are more of a problem.
the light rail is here if we like it or not. lets just educate safety and quit the bitchin.
I have lived in and around SF for many years. Ever heard of Cable Cars or Muni??? They have tracks that drive on the same lane as the cars – they aren’t even separated like they are down MLK. When there are accidents – which isn’t that common – it is usually the car driver’s fault. When it’s the train operator’s fault – they get reviewed. The way the light rail is Seattle is set up – it WILL ALWAYS be the driver’s fault! Signs, lights, flashing signs, and bells are present at ALL crossings!!!
The community activist that says it shouldn’t have been built at grade…. do you know how much more it would cost and how much longer it would have taken for this to have been built? I’m sure that would be the complaint of this person if they decided to do a tunnel.
There is no excuse for this kind of driver. I see red light runners and illegal left turns all of the time near my house (Findlay near MLK). I have sat at the same annoying lights that don’t seem to change – but that is NO reason to drive like a complete moron. They are lucky that there were not more injuries. The driver should have been sited for more than a red light running. If there were people in that train – the driver should be responsible for all injuries/damage as a result.
@Myra
Have you ever driven up Rainier Ave and NOT seen adults, teens, children, adults WITH children, darting across 4 lanes of traffic? Scary stuff. Even better is when said neighbors walk slowly and deliberately, giving you the stink eye for daring to look exasperated as you slam on the brakes so they don’t, you know, DIE.
You could install light rail tracks with a giant, screaming fire ball racing up and down rainier valley and our friends and neighbors would still run in front of it rather than walk a block out of their way to use a crosswalk.
This is the reality.
“You could install light rail tracks with a giant, screaming fire ball racing up and down rainier valley…”
Awesome!
Alright, alright. Seems on this one, I’m on the left of the Right.
Let’s sock it to ‘em. Giant fireballs. Right in the stink eye.
I went to the Traffic, Parks & Safety meeting at NewHolly last week, where a rep. from Sound Transit spoke about an effort to work out the kinks in the next few weeks. Kinks he referred to included the loud noise – there is a reason we hear the “screaming” noise from the tracks -they say they have identified the problem and are working on it. Also, they are working on the “dinging” to make it less annoying. Lastly, he pointed out that the timing of the lights are off – way off in some areas – and they are working on that as well. Everyone wants this to be a success, and I trust all will be done to work out these kinks before opening day. I also anticipate some kinks to take a while to identify and fix, just as in any new project.
I live up the hill from the Othello station and hear the trains regularly. I also see people crossing in front of them daily, and cars running red lights because they are impatient. I really think that with time, patience, and the right attitude, this can be a successful project. A lot of us are depending on it!
the ding ding ding of those bells is also the sound of your property values going up. if you don’t like it, cash out and move to renton where you can drive your car without worrying about being hit by a train or running into pedestrians. the flight pattern of seatac, boeing field, and the incredible noise of I5 and buses going by are also things people get used to.
seattle is such a funny place. in other communities, people are thrilled to be near excellent public transportation. get over it.
@JustWondering, iTea, others…
We live a block and half away and can hear the chimes. I guess the rail noise doesn’t bother me too much – I try to pretend it’s the sound of money. Ching, ching…ching, ching. I have to have some hope after making the mistake of buying here that my property value will increase exponentially because of our close proximity to the light rail. This in turn will allow us to move to an area where lawlessness does not prevail. Sorry, I digress.
sigh.
Even if you can’t HEAR the trains, there are signals. And you can see the train coming, it’s not moving that fast. Red light means DO NOT GO.
People will continue to get T boned until they start paying attention to traffic signals.
I agree, sometimes the waits are long, hopefully they will fix that (I sent an email to wash. dot about that one, and they assured me things will get better)
I agree, start fining people for breaking the law here.
There’s cities all over the world that have light rails or trams going not only on street level, but side by side with car traffic (on shared lanes) and surprisingly, the drivers there manage.
When I told my family in Germany about the safety discussion around the light rail they asked “and what exactly is the problem, all you have to do is look”
I’m sure it’ll just take some time. And honestly- there’s no way to prevent people who want to do illegal turns from turning. There’ll be accidents involving the light rail just as there are accidents only involving cars – that still doesn’t make the light rail less save. Only time will tell.
It’s not the ding-ding-ding of the bells that is bothersome but, the screech. As you move away from MLK and UP it gets louder and louder. At my house, the train noise can at times be louder than the jets overhead.
I wonder if the rails are not spaced properly in spots causing the metal wheels to scrape on the tracks or something? The noise is obnoxious.
And what about Phase II of Rainier Vista? Wasn’t that to be completed by the time the rail line opened??? Good thing they demolished all those usable/livable low income houses. There is a waiting list years long to get into housing like that and SHA destroys it with no plans to rebuild now. Again, the Valley gets screwed.
@dkl – The “Again, the Valley gets screwed” meme is old and tired.
I found some info on Rainier Vista Phase II for you:
Housing authority short at Rainier Vista East due to unexpected issues, delays and the credit and real estate market implosion
http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/830/
SHA wins Federal stimulus money and uses it to restart Phase II
http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/2022/
I also wanted Phase II to be done by now. But it’ll get done.
@trellis Thanks. I’d read those articles actually when they came out, but what happened to the funds that were already dedicated to Phase II? If they are blaming it all on the credit and RE market implosion, that indicates they were underfunded to begin with. To blame those things for not having it done by now is silly. Those homes were tore down long before the credit and RE market tanked – and – construction should have started as Phase I was complete. Dare I say: mismanaged?
dkl — they probably invested the funds in the market, which tanked. Someone got bad financial advice. Someone believed the old man with gray hair TV commercials and trusted the brand name financial products. Someone trusts Wall Street, and is an idiot for it and deserves to lose money, but not money dedicated to the community.
@John L — sorry, but if they had invested in the market when construction was started on Phase I, they would still be whole as the DJIA was about 8500 back then. In fact, it wasn’t until October 2007 that the DJIA started it’s downward slide from 14000. By then, Phase II construction should have been well underway.
“Sometimes I sit there for 7-10 minutes with no changes……it’s irritating to say the least. ”
I’ve waited longer than that, just wait until the trains are running every 7 minutes and you know they are not going to hit the stations at the same 7 minute mark which will have you waiting 10 or so minutes for the 27 seconds you will have to get across.
Sound Transit or DOT – whoever is footing bill for the stoplights – needs to invest in better technology. Currently the train seems to override the traffic lights with the cycle continuing in the background. This results in the cars or peds losing their turn in the cycle and having to wait longer than necessary. The light cycle needs to PAUSE while a train passes, so nobody loses their turn once traffic resumes.
Wondering if they skimped on technology or if they skimped on traffic flow consultants.
hmmmm, were not the only ones…..
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009419669_stnoise05m.html
I was there, and i have all the facts. The guy turned left from the inside S/B lane of MLK because he did not want to get stuck in traffic ahead of him. Plain and simple. If people obide by the law accidents would not happen. He wasnt even in the left turn lane and had he been the signal was red so legally he could not have turned left anyway. he is actually lucky that he was not killed.
“You cant fix Stupid”
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