A motor vehicle struck a bicyclist Thursday morning at an intersection with a tragic history of car vs. bike collisions.
Seattle Fire says a male rider in his 20s was struck around 7:30 AM at Pike and Boren. The rider was transported to the hospital in stable condition but complaining of a possible back injury. The intersection was closed to traffic as police investigated the crash and collected evidence. Buses were rerouted through a part of the morning commute.
In June 2012, 18-year-old Nap Cantwell was killed after he was struck by a vehicle as he rode through the busy intersection. A member of the Elysian Brewing family, Cantwell was honored by friends and family with a memorial fund benefitting a local biking organization. A “ghost bike” marked the intersection for months following his death. Possible updates to the city’s Bike Master Plan do not address changes to Boren, according to the Seattle Bike Blog. The plan does include a possible protected bike lane on Pike through the intersection, however.
Meanwhile, it appears SDOT’s first action to make the north terminus of the truncated Broadway bikeway safer is to cover up the section busy with nearby construction at Denny. Earlier this week, a rider was struck by a car as she attempted to enter the bikeway in the area where construction has created a confusing environment for cars, bikes and pedestrians. The bikeway is a necessary feature for the street now that streetcar tracks are embedded in the pavement south of Denny.
With the weather getting nicer out, these two accidents are a nice reminder for cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians to keep a closer eye out for one another.
The last few days I have seen far more cyclists all over the city. We are all in this together, lets stay safe and keep accidents to a minimum this year!
I saw this happen as I was walking to work this morning. Wasn’t a pretty sight. Hope the guy is alright. He was going pretty fast down Boren when he slammed into the side of the car. The guy actually flew off his bike, then slammed into the car.
Interesting how it was reported “a male rider in his 20s was struck around 7:30 AM at Pike and Boren”….or did he slam into the car? Not assigning blame one way or the other here (I wasn’t there), but this steep hill does seem to see a lot of cases where a downhill-riding cyclist traveling fast hits a car that may/may not have pulled out in front of them. That’s totally different from “car struck the cyclist”.
It boils down to one question: Did the cyclist run a red light and slam into the car, or did the car run the light and hit the cyclist? The answer is unknown at this point, but I would hope it can be determined by the police and/or insurance reps.
That’s a bad intersection. Watch the cracks in the pavement that are getting bigger at Melrose too. They are big enough to eat a tire.
I do not want to see anyone get hurt, but I am so sick of the majority of the bicycle riders in this city. They want you to “give them 3 feet”, but they have no problem pulling right beside you at a light within INCHES of your paint job. 99.9% of them DO NOT FOLLOW THE TRAFFIC LAWS, and have this holier-than-thou attitude that they are saving the world while you drive your car- lil secret…the Catholics, the Mormons and the Third World are going to add 5,000,000,000 more people to our pretty little rock in the next 50 years-you riding your bike is doing nothing. FOLLOW THE RULES and people might be a little more sympathetic. The first thing I think about when there is a bike/car accident—had to be the bike’s fault and ONE LESS ON THE ROAD.
Wanting to clear up why the person on the bike might be next to your paint job. In order that those who can take a free right turn can do this, I often move my bike (not that easy, since it weighs about 80 lbs) over to enable those drivers to go by me on the right while I’m waiting with the cars at a light. We really ARE all in this together, each bike IS one less car holding you up at your endless series of lights, and you really might want to lighten up your perspective and consider for a moment the tremendous risks those bicyclists are taking every minute, in part to lessen the congestion that you’re experiencing.
The difference is a little mistake by the cyclist hurts your paint job, a little mistake by a car can kill a cyclist. Not really the same severity. You start with “I don’t want to see anyone get hurt,” but then the rest of your post sounds like you have a bias against cyclists.