Results tagged “accidents”

It's the first day of real rain after a loooooooooong dry spell, and UW weather sage Cliff Mass says: Watch out! "During the dry period oil, dust and other debris collect on roadways and the addition of water produces a slippery emulsion." It certainly does, and you notice it taking the corners, or on a hill. That said, at the moment traffic flow looks pretty good.

In Renton late last night, a speeding SUV took the turn at Sunset Blvd. N too quickly, the driver losing control of the vehicle as it raced through a few lanes of traffic, shrubbery and then brilliantly crashed into the side of Burger King. The two uninjured fast food employees were working in the kitchen--but certainly not having it their way--as the SUV missed them and struck the storage area. The three people inside the SUV suffered injuries and were taken to Harborview Medical Center. Police think drugs or alcohol may have been a factor in the crash.

The Seattle Times says "between 4 and 9 a.m., the Washington State Patrol logged 52 accidents, including five with injuries, on major highways in King County." But you'll only read on Seattlest how dangerous the corner of Broadway East and East Aloha was. That's where our bike slid out from under us and we still somewhat sleepily glided along the road for a few feet. Ironically, we'd been checking for ice farther up the hill, but there we were in the sunshine and the frost had melted. A shady corner in the flats was our undoing. We've been biking around the Hill for almost three years now and that was our first spill. Sort of anticlimactic.

One of the most important lessons we learned in Driver's Ed was: "Avoid breaking natural gas lines; it won't be pretty should you happen to crash into one." Early this morning, around 4:20 a.m., a 19-year-old female in a pick-up truck drove into such a gas line on Highway 164 by SE 380th (out by Auburn). The highway is currently closed (good morning, traffic!), and KOMO says the driver is being investigated for drunk driving. If she was driving inebriated, the woman forgot the other most important lesson we learned in Driver's Ed: "Sleep in your car, goddammit. Driving drunk is not okay." Seattlest hopes everything works out for the driver and for Highway 164, which does see a lot of traffic. It would be a pain if WSDOT had to keep it shut down much longer for repairs.

Twelve local teenagers, who were posing for a religious youth group photo in Buckley, WA, were injured when the deck they were posing on collapsed. Nine of the teenagers, ages 14 to 18, were taken to the hospital but only suffered minor injuries.