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Seattlest Pix 09Nov25
Can't Miss It: Thanksgiving Eve
Charter buses hanging over I-5 at East Thomas and Melrose, just north of downtown Seattle (Jeremy Barker)
Today, two charter buses slid down icy, cobblestone East Thomas Street on Capitol Hill, across Melrose, and crashed through the guardrail, almost plummeting onto I-5. One bus made it several feet past the guardrail before coming to a stop. Buses frequently use East Thomas Street--they exit I-5 at Olive but can't make the left turn down Denny, so they go two blocks up, turn left at East Thomas and then right on Denny to get to the Greyhound station. This time it appears two of them attempted East Thomas at the same time, and the results were heart-stopping. At this point we're not hearing of any major injuries. Updates to come.
UPDATE: As you can see in the pictures, two Northwestern Trailways buses were involved. We didn't actually notice that both broke through the guardrail until we looked closer at our own photos. There were a few minor injuries, but mainly it sounds like the worst part for the passengers were the few seconds where they thought they were going to die. The buses were following each other, and when the first slid and hit the guardrail, the second collided with it. The accident took place at about 12:30 p.m., and as we left the scene at 1:30 p.m., there were aid cars and police cars but no tow trucks. Curious how they're going to get the buses back on the road with East Thomas in the luge-ready state it is.
UPDATE: Seattlest Jeremy has more photos and adds: From experience, we know this is a common enough route for large vehicles that can't make a left turn directly on to Denny from Bellevue because of traffic waiting to go up the hill. It's long been an irritant (several-ton vehicles on cobblestones rattles our windows daily), and we hope this forces companies to reconsider the wisdom of the route. The drivers in this case seemed painfully misinformed--not only is Thomas impassable, but the Denny overpass they were intending to take has been closed for more than a day.
UPDATE: Just heard from friends merging onto the freeway that people are actually pulling off to the side of I-5 so they can take pictures. Definite signal of the end times. Gravel trucks are arriving, so tow trucks may be on the way. Only have 20 minutes of daylight left, at this point.
UPDATE: As of 5:30, crews have pulled one bus back onto solid ground and are currently hooking up tow trucks to the second--and more precarious--bus.
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I can see I-5 from my window (I'm south a half mile or so), and it's getting slow. My guess is that it's exciting enough for people to drive really slow to check it out on the way past. My point? If that's your way home, be ready to wait.
as someone who typically hates gawkers.........i'd slow down to look at this shit. it's like something out of 'Die Hard' or 'Speed'.
"Stay above 50.........feet of I-5, please"
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/seattle/i5_pinest.htm#cam
YOu can see it from the traffic cam too.
I'll be checking that one before leaving work today...
To add some background, there were three buses in a convoy bringing Job Corps students back from Moses Lake to Seattle for the holidays. The third bus was alerted before making the turn, and so avoided cascading down on the other two. As MvB mentions, from experience living at the corner of Bellevue & Thomas, I can say that this is not an unusual route for commercial bus lines to take when they get off I-5 north at Olive and need to go downtown. In fact, we've often wondered if maybe GPS guidance systems like TomTom don't identify this as a route to avoid a hairy left turn onto Denny from Bellevue. We frequently see a variety of large vehicles using this route to make the turn onto Denny, not just buses. I think that's why the city didn't bother to close the road--it's otherwise a little used residential road. I'm just waiting for the news to try to make this all the city's fault, though.
those photos look like they are straight out of "Speed 3: Snowmaggedon"
"Please exit from the REAR of the bus. Thank you for riding Northwestern Bus Lines!"