The investigation into a collision involving a car and bicyclist has tied up the intersection of Pine and Boren after the female rider was taken to the hospital early Tuesday night. In the incident just before 5:15p, Seattle Fire said it responded to a rider in her 20s with reported minor injuries. The woman was taken to Harborview for treatment.
Investigators were still at work in the intersection just before 6p. You can check out the CHS Capitol Hill traffic camera page to see if the intersection has cleared if you were planning to travel through the area.
The bike lane disappears and then reappears for half a second after crossing Boren and then it just becomes a sharrow. I’ve seen it confuse many a driver as they don’t notice that the turn lane is a turn lane and that the bike lane on the other side is a bike lane. It’s just a horrible set up. It’s a horrible area to just abruptly end the bike lane at maybe 50 feet before the intersection. Cyclists are forced to merge into traffic and on rainy days like this, the chance of injury escalates big time.
Hope this young lady is alright.
Also, Seattle, maybe time for one of these on Pine?
http://www.bikesbelong.org/bikes-belong-foundation/green-lan
We’ve all seen the Times crash map by now, and a lot of us may have seen the Cascade bicycle crash map as well (or added ourselves to it). It’s time for better bike facilities on Pine.
Yep, that’s a bad one. Bicyclists are sandwiched inbetween the straight lane and the right-turn only lane. That’s if they can even get over there after the bike lane being on the right-hand side down Pine. In rain and rush-hour, it’s a very bad combination. Plus, the cars turning right get antsy because there are a lot of pedestrians crossing and only a few cars can go on each green.
seems a bit unnecessary to close both streets during a rainy rush hour for an investigation into a crash that caused minor injuries. SPD, lets work on prioritization just a bit.
Boren has been open to traffic during the investigation.
One street being closed is not the whole city. Poor baby your automobile didn’t have priority over a stretch of land due to someone being hit by a car. I really feel your pain. No, wait, why don’t you explain why cars should be allowed on this street normally when shit like this happens?
Boren was not open. It was diverted towards the city. Ryan, I was simply making an observation given that myself and hundreds of other people sat on Boren for a full hour. I know you are a much more enlightened person who would never think of stepping in a motorized vehicle, but please don’t make the rest of us fools look so very bad.
I was in my car at the light and saw the accident. The biker ran the light… Barely slowed down. When she passed me I couldn’t believe she wasn’t slowing down then boom. I’m surprised I don’t see more of this with how many lights bikers go through. I’m glad she wasn’t seriously hurt because it looked bad she flew pretty high.
Boren north toward Olive was open. Sorry for the confusion
I was there. Extremely violent collision (half the bike landed about 30 feet away) and I am relieved the injuries are minor. I averted my eyes during the actual crash though, because I didn’t want to watch somebody get killed. Lots of witnesses on the scene; I’m sure many saw it and can provide good accounts of who did what.
A biker ran a light?!?!?!? I simply do not believe it! That never happens. Bikers always respect the rules of the road.
RS, your snarky comment is just so hilarious.
But yeah RS one person in this comment section said that they saw her running a red light. Sort of like the guy I saw run a light right in front of the 11 today on Harvard & Pine, or sort of like the person pulling the most reckless left hand turn that I saw (from another car) almost strike a pedestrian who was already mid crosswalk before the person in the car arrived at the intersection today at 17th and Madison because they just had to zoom through the light and just haddddd to make it onto 17th, or sort of like the three people in a row that I saw run the light at Pike & 4th on Friday, or like the person I saw run the light (in front of me, a person on a bike) on Saturday at Bellevue & Pine, or like the countless people who run the lights on Broadway every day.
Get it?
I was walking west on Pine, just east of Boren, when I heard what sounded like two vehicles hitting each other. I looked in the direction of the collision and saw a body flying into the air, at least 10 feet high, and at that time realized a pedestrian had been hit. When I ran over to the scene, a physician was already there attending to the injured until emergency vehicles arrived. Honestly, the way the pedestrian was projected into the air, I thought she had sustained more serious injuries. I’m glad to hear her injuries weren’t that serious and hope she, as well as the driver, who by the way, wasn’t at fault, are ok.
Brian M
Seattle, WA
Haha Oiseau relax… Take the defensiveness down a notch. It was an observation made about what I see on a regular basis directly related to what I had seen today. Ie if I had seen a car run a light perhaps I would have noted how many cars I see run lights. The point here is that if the light is red and you care about your safety stop whatever it is you are moving at that time… Bike, car or your feet.
Jessash31, my comment was in response to RS. Yours was just fine. RS was trying to turn an unfortunate incident into a frankly worn out talking point. My point was, to RS, that people run red lights on bikes, in cars, in vans, in trucks, in SUVs, on scooters, on motorcycles, etc.
I just wanted to stress to RS that a girl god hurt regardless of the situation and that trying to use this one time as an example that cyclists are somehow “bad” is just irresponsible. SDOT data shows that over two thirds of car/pedestrian (which cyclists are counted as in this instance) collisions are the fault of the driver.
Anyway, yep, not directed toward you, so no worries.
I was there too and I am surprised (and very glad) the woman survived such a crash. I was on my bike maybe 100 feet behind her and almost immediately about 10 or 20 people formed a barricade around her. Such an unfortunate incident. Kind of a wake up call to cyclists and drivers alike to be more cautious all around. I have never seen a bike snap in two like that before. Geez, I will be processing that whole experience for a long time. I’m very grateful there was a witness who was a physician and other helpful and concerned witnesses there tonight.
I was there too, about 100 feet away in my truck. I only looked up and saw it right as it happened, so I can’t say who’s at “fault” here, but I’m seriously glad to hear that she’s okay, it looked pretty bad at the time.
That intersection is always sketchy, I’m honestly slightly surprised accidents right here aren’t more common of an occurrence.
Thanks, oiseau.
jseattle does us a great disservice by disabling the the worthy and “fine” comment filter. I appreciate your alert.
I saw it too — front row seat — I was waiting to take left up pine.
She just ran the light. It had been green for a while — the green arrow turned on for me moments after she ran it. She never had a chance, and the car never had a chance to slow.
I’m amazed it is minor injuries. She was tossed far up in the air.
It’s pretty stupid to debate “bikes running lights” and “cars running lights.” Both obviously do. When a bike errs like this, it’s pretty clear who pays the price.
I see it all the time a block west of here at the Paramount. Sometimes they’ll cruise down the hill, make a hard right turn onto 9th, which is a one way street, or just make that hard right onto the sidewalk.
You never see them run red lights going up the hill.
Running red lights, by both cyclists and motorists, is rampant and increasingly so in Seattle. But I think cyclists are more culpable because they intentionally blow through a light long after it has turned red. Motorists, on the other hand, tend to run a yellow light as it turns to red…not good, but a less dangerous move.
But a yellow light means “STOP!”…..not “full steam ahead.” Please respect it. Your “busy schedule” is just not that important.
agreed, bruce
She don’t have “minor injuries” as reported. She is in ICU and has been since last night. She went through surgery this morning.
Yeah, Carly, sorry about that — for the fire department, “minor injuries” seems to be the next band below “serious injuries” which is just below “life threatening.” I didn’t have access to information about the specific injuries because they hadn’t been determined at the scene or at least not recorded for me to be able to access the info from SFD. So, I’m left with writing things like “reported minor injuries” — I’ll try to keep this situation in mind in the future and find a better way to express the uncertainty of the general descriptions from Fire. True story: I once was told a man injured in a fight suffered “minor injuries” even though he had been stabbed in the stomach three times.
I agree that the bicyclist is the one who is more apt to be seriously injured. But I also feel for the motorist, who was apparently obeying traffic laws….he/she has to live with the fact that a human being was seriously injured, and that would be no easy thing.
Maybe that driver will learn that red lights and green lights are an illusion.