I arrived at my bus stop to see the aftermath of this accident at 23rd and Yesler this morning around 7:45. Both cars seemed to be involved in a head-on accident, since they were both smashed up in the front. Both cars were up on the sidewalk on either side of 23rd, and there was some debris in the crosswalk on the south side of the intersection. Traffic was backed up to Jackson and Martin Luther King as a result. Must have been some crash! It seems like there are a lot of bad accidents at this intersection; I wonder why?
I live at this intersection. People regularly continue through the intersection (all ways – but mostly west/east on Yesler) well past red. This intersection is busy with pedestrians (kids), buses, fire engines and lots of cars. With so much going on it’s just really important to slow on yellow instead of gunning your way through the intersection. I wish we had red light cameras on this intersection to curb this behaviour….
I agree. It’s not just East/West though. I see people run the red lights in all directions at that intersection and it’s not just as it turns yellow that people speed up. People flagrantly run the red lights there. I mean the light is completely red and people drive right through. Also, there is no left turn arrow for turning southbound on 23rd from Yesler and oncoming traffic is coming up a hill with limited visibility in all directions. I have seen so many close calls here it is a scary intersection. Theoretically I hate those red light cameras but this intersection needs some serious attention and a camera would probably do the trick.
I was walking westbound to the bus stop at 23rd and Yesler and was about a block and a half away when I saw and heard the accident happen, so didn’t have a close view of it. From what I saw it looked like the truck made a right turn off of eastbound Yesler onto southbound 23rd Ave and the Camry came through the intersection and hit the truck part way through it’s turn. I wasn’t paying attention to the lights to be able to tell if one of the other was running a red light for sure, but may have been the truck making a free right on red and not seeing the southbound Camry coming to the intersection. Of course alternated could have been the truck having just gotten green and the Camry running the red.
Fortunately both parties appeared to be OK — by the time I got to the intersection they were both out of their vehicles. Oddly the police car got there before any firefighters from the station in front of which the accident occurred even came out. Guess they hadn’t heard it!
Re: “no left turn arrow for turning southbound on 23rd from Yesler.”
I’ve seen cars gunning to make that light on east/westbound Yesler, too, especially when they’re stuck behind a car or bus that’s trying to make a left turn without an arrow. The light’s timing seems incredibly short, too, like only three or four cars make it through a green light at a time (not that that justifies running a red), that’s just when I’ve seen cars running a red light.
Lately, there’s been a road traffic monitoring device set up on Yesler (West of 23rd). Hopefully, whatever data SDOT’s collecting will help improve that intersection.