A 25-year-old woman was taken to Harborview Tuesday night with serious injuries following a collision with a car near the intersection of 24th Ave and E. Boyer. The woman was riding her bike at the time of the crash but we don’t yet know any further details about what happened. Reports from police officers who first arrived at the scene said the woman was unconscious but breathing. The incident occurred just after 9 PM and the emergency response closed 24th Ave northbound to traffic for about 30 minutes. We will follow up with the Seattle Fire Department and Harborview to find out if we can learn more about the woman’s condition.
UPDATE: SFD spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen tells CHS that the victim is a 35-year-old woman — we originally reported that she was 30 — and confirmed that she was transported to Harborview with life-threatening injuries. We are attempting to find out more about her condition from the hospital. ** END UPDATE **
UPDATE x2: We have learned that the victim was actually 25 — as noted in comments below — and is currently in intensive care in serious condition. Sorry for all the confusion on this but we received three different ages from officials with three different agencies. ** END UPDATE **
We received this eyewitness account of the aftermath of the incident via Twitter from @generalgentry:
@jseattle I saw a cyclist laying face down on the ground, her shoe had flown off of her. Looked like a couple driving a convertible hit her
@generalgentry also noted in a follow-up tweet that it’s possible the woman on the bicycle struck the vehicle.
We’ve written about the frequency of crashes on the 23rd/24th Ave route between the Hill and Montlake. It’s a good area to slow down even during the gorgeous conditions we are experiencing this week.
i really hope this bicyclist is ok. this makes me really angry. i drive my kids down 24th to montlake on a regular basis. even with all of the speed reduction measures–unmarked police cars, large radar sign northbound flashing your current speed–people still drives like bats out of hell. where are they going that they have to drive so fast and endanger lives?? we live on e. union st close to 12th, and i’m currently nagging the city about doing the same thing on e. union, going eastbound east of 12th ave. people drive like it’s so important to get to the cd or madrona 30 seconds faster than if they drove the speed limit. it’s just a matter of time before someone is seriously injured/killed on union st.
What information tells you the driver is at fault?
I used to commute down 24th until I was almost killed by a car that collided with me while trying to pass me. By some miracle, I didn’t crash, even though the collision was hard enough to break off the car’s side view mirror.
Now I take 19th–>Interlaken to get to Montlake from Capitol Hill.
24th is inherently dangerous for cyclists, but unfortunately, the risks of riding that road aren’t always obvious until its too late. In my opinion, the city should put up signs that
a) either clearly indicate the danger of cycling on 24th, or better yet, prohibit cyclists on that stretch altogether
b) provide alternative routes. If 19th isn’t a suitable alternative, then perhaps a bike thoroughfare could be added to 22nd, 23rd, or 25th.
I suppose you could try to take measures against drivers on 24th, but personally, I think cyclists would be better served by having a truly safer alternative.
19th Ave E. to Interlaken to Montlake playfield, then under 520, past the NOAA fisheries facility to Montlake Boulevard sidewalk is a very quiet safe scenic alternative to 23rd/24th.
I rarely see bikes on this stretch and this is why. Even in my car, it’s a little dicey. Just this morning, I was waiting to turn left onto 24th from Aloha and the light turned green for me. Fortunately I’m a slow starter as someone came flying down 24th probably doing 40-50mph and completely blew through the red light. Ironically, they then slowed for the speed sign a little ways down the road.
Is bad enough in my car, city should have taken some of that sharrow money and spent it on actual street improvements. 23rd, especially the outside lanes, are full of potholes, poorly patched concrete, and in overall poor condition.
Add to 23rd the volume of traffic that uses it daily and it’s really not a safe place to cycle.
the woman is a friend of mine, and she’s 25, not 35.
also, it sounds like a car backed out of a driveway and hit her as she was lawfully riding down the hill
Thanks. SFD was wrong on the age we also found out from Harborview. We have some information on her condition but not much. Updating above. Thanks for the information.
temp, none of the information in this story tells me that it was the driver’s fault–i can only assume from my experience driving that stretch of road at least twice a day. if speed wasn’t a factor in this one, i would bet it is for a good portion of the vehicle-bicyclist/pedestrian collisions on 24th.
I can only assume from driving this stretch of road that like most cyclists, she was picking and choosing which rules of the road to follow for whatever suited her need.
i hope the biker is okay. we have a city that is very much in transition (despite the recent ranking of the state being one of the most bike friendly). we need more bike-friendly routes identified and improved so that it’s extremely unlikely accidents like this will occur. this means more than just a painted line on the road, it means barriers in dangerous curves, underpasses, enforcement of laws that promote safety. i’ve just bought a bike again after several years of being too afraid to use one in the city, and i’m sure i’m not alone in that hesitation, but it is something i see as the future of Seattle.
I haven’t found a good answer.
One problem is getting from 19th to the Montlake playfield. 19th between Interlaken and Boyer is steep even if you walk your bike. Then you have to jog around the greek church, although there’s several cut-throughs that work at low speed. Lastly, the trail under 520 descends by the fisheries building into a narrow blind curve. Worse, it’s an underused trail so no one expects oncoming traffic.
Sometimes Broadway works, especially since they added the climbing lane to Harvard under the freeway. It’ll be better when they get to repaving it. But the door prize danger is much worse on Broadway than 24th. Federal Ave would be a great bike bypass except that it has the worst pavement I’ve seen in my life.
Federal Ave E is a very quiet street, but it really does have horrible pavement, with potholes and badly patched areas everywhere. It’s kind of ironic because it is lined with the homes of very affluent people…wonder why they haven’t organized to get some re-paving done?
I am certainly not condoning breaking the speed limit anywhere, but there is a reason why many vehicles speed on 24th Ave E…the downhill section, starting just north of E Aloha, is very steep, and it’s impossible to stay under the speed limit unless you use your brake constantly or use a lower gear. I’m kind of obsessive about obeying the speed limit, but I do find myself inadvertently going over the limit on that stretch.
I beleive I read where the city has pulled an old traffic analysis report, and is talking of condensing 23rd down to two lanes ( one each direction ), and adding bike lanes. Originally that sounded daff ( to me ), but now I understand that thraffic metering found large streches of 23rd were under utilized, and that there was a real need for more, and safer bike lanes.
If this traffic revision is truely under consideration, this could pull bikers off these other less safe streets, and provide one added bike commuter option
PS. I appreciated the reporting of the accident, but feel the age of the biker was less important, or at least of lower importance as compared to her health.
I walk the hill as much as possible, and avoid use of my bike or car when I can. Though I know Seattle is transitioning to a more bike friendly city, I have found bikers often are less kind to me as a walker than I had expected. More than once I have had to dodge or jump out of a biker’s path, even when I was clearly visible as in a marked cross walk ( once they clipped my baby stroller before I could react ).
Seattle is a wonderfully accomodating city, and we are continuing to improve and adjust, but please, don’t run a walker down, and in the same light, please remember that bikers may not have the benefit of being able to stop as fast or safely as a car, so give them a little added space ( both from us soft bodied walkers, and from those big, hard bodied cars ).
The woman who was hit is a wonderful friend of mine, and what I can NOT get over is the person/persons (if the twitter was correct about the couple in a convertible) not stopping to check on her! Are you kidding me? You hit someone with your car, and whether it’s your fault or the biker’s, why would you not stop-especially if the biker is laying face down, unconcious! This is just crazy to me.
Iam the woman that was hit on the bike. I am okay. I have a broken arm and a contusion on my left leg. I am sufferring from a traumatic brain injury, but all in all, I am okay. I have no recollection of the accident at all. And I do hope, that the family that hit me are okay as well. Thank you everyone for your thpughts and concerns about my well-being.
And the driver was at fault, as I had the right of way. They were taking a left at a green light and I was going straight, according to the police report.