From our news partners at the Seattle Times comes news of a settlement in a lawsuit stemming from a 2007 accident on 12th Ave E:
Elizabeth Newman was “struck violently” by the Metro van as she rode her Vespa on the way to her job as an operating-room nurse at Swedish Medical Center the morning of Nov. 21, 2007, according to the complaint filed by Newman and her husband, Thomas.The accident occurred at 12th Avenue East and East Thomas Street. The Metro van driver, traveling on Thomas Street, passed a stop sign and failed to yield the right of way to Newman, who was on 12th Avenue East, according to the complaint.Dearie said Newman was thrown 40 feet by the impact of the collision, suffering severe internal injuries and compound leg fractures, and was in a coma for several days at Harborview Medical Center. She hasn’t recovered sufficiently to return to work, Dearie said.
Times reports that the settlement may be the largest ever agreed to by the county. It also looks like the City of Seattle might be on the hook for part of the $7 million:
A portion of the settlement cost may be paid by Seattle under a separate indemnification agreement, but no information was immediately available about the terms of the agreement. Seattle was also named as a defendant after King County claimed the Capitol Hill intersection where the accident occurred was unsafe.Ogershok said she was unaware of the side agreement, and former Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr said Wednesday night he didn’t remember the details.
We also got this note about the story from neighbor Jennifer:
Good news for the woman injured on Capitol Hill. I am hoping that this encourage the city to do something to make the funky intersection at 12th & Thomas safer! Within about a 10 day period of this accident there were 4 serious collisions.
I was deposed for this case because I have lived near the intersection for more than 15 yrs and have seen or heard many accidents. Traffic calming with curb bulbs has helped but it is still a dangerous intersection.
This is a dangerous intersection, especially at night. If you’re a pedestrian trying to cross 12th east to west, it’s almost impossible to see northbound traffic because of the parked cars.
The “bulb-outs” that the city has recently installed on Pine as well as 12th by Seattle U (which also got stamped concrete x-walks and lots of signage) are great in that they shorten the crosswalk distance and make pedestrians a bit more visible to the few drivers that actually stop for people at x-walks. Let’s get safer crosswalks up here at the north end of 12th. …and how about improving 12th & Howell that the Neighborhood Plan identified 10-years ago as a key pedestrian intersection for access to the Park and Broadway?