Friends and family of David Daley are rallying around the stylist after he was struck by a car while crossing the street at E Pine and 12th Ave just after midnight Sunday morning.
A donation site has been set up to raise money to help support the 33-year-old who suffered “a shattered elbow that will require surgery to reconstruct, a fractured vertebrae in his neck, bleeding in the brain, and other various cuts, gashes, and bruises” in the collision.
According to emergency radio dispatches, Daley was reported down at 12:17 AM Sunday morning when a clerk at the nearby East Precinct headquarters saw a commotion in the street. The clerk reported that a man had been struck by a “Smart Car” and required immediate medical attention. UPDATE: According to preliminary information provided to Seattle Fire, Daley was hit by a Car2Go vehicle and thrown 12 to 15 feet after being struck in the crosswalk.
The investigation into the crash is ongoing. We’ll check with SPD to see what else we can learn.
I don’t know if this was a car sharing vehicle, but it is likely that it was.
If so, we are seeing the continued dark side of car sharing after several notable car sharing accidents in the last weeks. Car shares take people who rarely drive and place them in an unfamiliar car adding more dangerous drivers to the mix.
These drivers may be people whose previous unaccountability behind the wheel left them carless – and they don’t have the same financial incentive as a car owner to keep a clean record for lower insurance rates.
There is no social good in car sharing. Our city should stop subsidizing car sharing.
Smart cars make it dangerous for all of the car owning, regularly inebriated weekend drivers in Capitol Hill. Seriously, don’t try to exercise your pedestrian rights at night-time on the Hill.
As a driver of some 35 years and an avid Car2Go enthusiast, I have to challenge your blanket generalization regarding car-share drivers.
While it may be true that, in some instances, these vehicles are being driven by people who do not have a great deal of experience operating motor vehicles, there are also many of us who find the convenience of these services, particularly for short trips at times when bus service may be reduced or non-existent, to be much preferable than driving our own cars and absorbing the additional cost of evening parking in areas such as Capitol Hill. When your bus route stops running at 11:30 p.m., and factoring in the cost and availability of parking in such high-traffic neighborhoods, or the comparatively exorbitant cost for a taxi, these services offer a significant savings, both in time and money.
So, while some car-share drivers could probably use a bit of a refresher course in basic skills, at the same time there are plenty of us who definitely do NOT fall into the category of “clueless nubes”, when it comes to driving – at least no more so than those who drive on a regular basis and still manage to get into accidents.
Banning car-shares certainly won’t solve the latter problem; unless you want to go the next logical step and ban automobiles altogether, which I seriously doubt more than a handful of the most extreme environmentalists would support.
What you said is fine and all, however when the person who gets hit is your brother (as David is mine) your view of this may change. These programs are dangerous when they just let anyone with a license get behind the wheel with no training in a new car. See, you down play it by saying “sure they could use a refresher course” Yes they could, because some one almost killed a pedestrian! That is not a simple, forgot the blinker, mistake. This guy almost killed my brother. Granted I feel bad for him and I am sure it was a mistake. However people need to realize that driving a vehicle is a great responsibility and you hold many peoples lives in your hands whilst doing so. Simple mistakes can cost lives and devastate family’s. Get well David! and Drivers of all cars, up your game and pay attention!
In that same vein, and with the utmost respect to your brother, pedestrians of all streets need to up their game and pay attention as well.
For what it’s worth, the definitely don’t let “just anyone” with a license get a membership. My friend who commutes 40 miles a day got denied membership presumably because of one small accident and one ticket all 3+ years in his past so… I think their criteria might be higher than you think.
That said, it’s completely possible (and even likely) that people with squeaky clean records have them because they never drive, so I suppose my point is worthless. :)
I totally agree with Jeremy. David Daley is my son. If it was your son you would think differently. People née d to just pay attention when they get behind the wheel.
If what you’re saying is true, than we would have seen this “dark side of car sharing” 13 years ago, when Flexcar was founded in Seattle.
I am saddened to hear about this accident and damage done to another person. I hope the individual(s) responsible for this will be caught and punished to the full extend, and be held accountable for the injury to another person.
I use car sharing a ton, especially the Car2Go smart cars. I am an experienced driver, and the service is useful to me for a number of reasons.
The clearer facts are:
1) There are a ton of privately owned Smart Cars in this city, so it may not have been a car sharing service.
2) The person who did this is responsible for their actions, not the car sharing community. I think a clearer sign that this driver is a douche bag is that they hit a human being, and did not stop. Trust me, if a person in a Smart Car hit anything bigger than a roller up news paper, they knew it.
3) It is likely that this driver was intoxicated, and the poor choice to drive while drunk is not a car sharing phenomenon. This bad decision is made regularly and often times more commonly by private car owners who have regular access to their own vehicles and feel an entitlement to drive them whenever they want.
I would hope that this sad event doesn’t turn into a debate about the car sharing community, but rather a discussion on personal responsibility and accountability. The best thing we can do right now is donate to the link above and hope the east precinct does their job well.
Thank you, Eric. Well said!
no one said this was a hit and run, no one said the driver was intoxicated, no one said the driver was at fault.
stop making shit up people.
Seriously?! It’s not like they just hand out car sharing memberships. You have to have a clean driving record to become a member. Of course there are going to be car share accidents now that they are on the road. I think if you look at the stats the numbers aren’t going to be much different than privately owned vehicle accidents. The problem in this case isn’t car sharing, it’s people being unattentive drivers.
Um, no, they don’t require a “clean” driving record, they require an “adequate” driving record – and, unlike insurance companies, they don’t check claims histories.
As for whether the financial incentive makes people drive more safely, you bet it does. For most of us, the insurance increase from a ticket is a much bigger incentive than the ticket itself to stay within the law.
I certainly hope they ran toxicology on the driver – at that hour of the night a high percentage of drivers are intoxicated. If the driver was drunk, he is automatically at fault under state law, regardless of other circumstances (like whether the pedestrian had a “walk” signal.)
Experienced drivers are always scanning the road for unexpected events. I don’t know whether any driver could have prevented this accident, but I do know that many carshare drivers lack experience and driving skills.
So somebody was nearly killed, and w/o a shred of evidence you use this horrible event as an excuse to go on a rant about car sharing.
You’re a jackass of the highest order. Christ.
There’s beginning to be a lot of evidence – whether the hit and run Car2Go that hit the cyclist in late March or the very drunk zipcar driver who flipped on Madison in May and now this, we have three very serious incidents within a few blocks of one another (not coincidentally the drinking district) with drivers who would not have been behind the wheel without carshares.
Many people don’t drive as well when it’s not their own vehicle. Haven’t you ever known someone who used “it’s a rental” as an excuse to do something deliberately stupid? Add to that the natural unease in an unfamiliar vehicle and latenight driving, and I worry we will see more of this.
How many accidents involving non-car-sharing cars have happened within the same area? Surely a conclusive declaration of alarm like yours must be founded on strong comparative data.
…and on what data do you base the assertion that the carshare users involved in these accidents –let alone carshare users in general– are inexperienced or would not be behind the wheel otherwise? Surely a statement as definitive and predictably controversial as this must be founded on strong, reportable data. I’d like to see it.
I’ve driven more miles in safety than you’ve had hot meals. I no longer own a motor vehicle for economic and ethical reasons but use Car2Go and other carshare services at times. The spotless safety record of me and countless other drivers like me render your blanket claims about carshare users patently, retractably false.
Then, by your logic, we should ban rentals entirely. Or really any kind of ‘casual’ driver. After all, those people who spend hours commuting are naturally going to be better drivers with cleaner driving records, right?
Idiot.
What’s more, the accidents we’ve seen recently are a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of DUIs and car related accidents. If there was any kind of substiantive relationship between accidents and car sharing programs, you can be damn sure that the insurance companies would adjust premiums accordingly and, in turn, the car sharing programs would crack down on driver standards.
To reiterate: you’re a slimebag who’s using a tragic incident (which, incidentally, doesn’t appear to be the fault of the carshare driver) and some very contorted logic to grind a personal axe. In other words, you’re a jackass.
Have any studies to back this up? Seems equally likely that the most dangerous drivers are the ones who take hundreds of trips a year and are complacent.
If that were the case, insurers would give discounts to inexperienced drivers and employers would seek out drivers with little time behind the wheel. Do you think either of those things is true?
I see these cars zipping around. On Aloha between 10th and Broadway, going the wrong way, speeds down Broadway to Roy and parks. Then walk up to his apartment above Roy street Cafe. The assentive in these cars are to get to point A to point B as quick as possible. Car2Go you are paying by the second.
Yea really the only thing stopping me from running over pedestrians is the financial peril. Good comment.
You’re probably right – we should stop issuing tickets. Your sarcastic response has convinced me that nobody drives any more safely due to the risk of a ticket and associated higher insurance rates and that no unsafe drivers are forced to stop because it gets too expensive.
I love David! Im so sad to hear about this thank you CHS for posting the link to his donation site. I hope more people give as it could have happened to any of us.
if it’s one of those Car to Go vehicles, there will be records.
Does anybody know what the insurance reality with one of those cars is?
In summary they pay from $1,000 to $100,000 per person: severe injuries and long recovery periods could easily exceed that.
https://seattle.car2go.com/faq.php#answer11
liability insurance coverage for bodily injury and property damage to a maximum limit of $100,000 per person/$300,000 per accident;
Unless the member has obtained a loss damage waiver, the member will be responsible for:
a deductible of $1,000 (in the national currency of the Home Area) if any accident occurs or damage is suffered by reason of the fault of the member (or other driver of the vehicle);
fault for any accident or damage that cannot be determined; or
damages for any accident or loss that cannot be recovered from a third party.
I understand the need for debate on car share in all parts of the country as it is becoming more popular…and with that issues arise, but this is a story about David… For now, I am hoping we can focus on that. This does not make the issue of car share any less important… But for now it is a person and not an issue that needs our attention!
I saw the immediate aftermath of the accident, as in a I saw a lot of emergency vehicles, a human body on the street, and a car2go smartcar at the scene. I did not care to indulge in what there was to be seen so I promptly crossed the street and did not look back. But I am fairly certain that it was a car2go involved. For whatever that’s worth.
Let me set the record straight. I was there, and I saw exactly what happened. I was on 12th street trying to make a left hand turn on Pine. I had a red arrow, but the light was green for straight ahead traffic. A guy trying to cross the street caught me eye because of the way he was going about it. First, he did not have the right away, because it was a red for him and he shouldn’t be trying to cross the street yet, but more importantly, he kept on hesitating like he wanted to cross the street, and then finally tried to run across the street. What happened next scared the hell out of me because I heard a loud crash *had my windows down* and saw the guy get hit by the smart car. He hit front and the windshield really hard, then rolled over the side of the car, the smart car driver tried to pull over and avoid him further, but unfortunately his back right tire ran over this guys head.
I immediately parked and flagged down a cop, as others had already rushed to the scene and people were calling 911. I gave the cop a statement, and the fire trucks were there in less than 5 minutes. It was a really quick response time, and a good job by Seattle Fire and PD for being on the scene so fast.
This was not the fault of the Smart Car driver *although, I think Smart Cars are just ridiculous and would never drive one* nor can you blame the Car2Go concept. On top of that, I saw the driver talking to the police as well. He didn’t appear to be intoxicated, and in fact looked very remorseful about everything that had happened.
So, please stop saying the guy was probably driving like a douche and that it was his fault that he hit this guy. There was no way he could have avoided this accident, because a) he had the green light and b) the guy basically ran in front of the car.
I’ve been scouring the news the last 2 days looking to see what happened to the guy and to make sure he was alright. It sounds like he’s going to have a long road to recovery, but I just thank God he’s ok and didn’t die.
Thanks for your information, Justin. A reminder (hopefully obvious) to everyone that there are few confirmed details in this incident so please keep that in mind when reading accounts of what happened and assigning blame, etc. I’m doing what I can to follow up on some accounts.
Shouldn’t there be some confirmed details about this incident by now?
Collision investigations can take weeks. I have request in for preliminary info from SPD but it also takes time and typically these aren’t very detailed as the main collision investigation is underway.
Cool – all this speculation is driving me nuts. I’m pro cars and pro pedestrian/cycling so really I just want the facts to formulate my opinion of this incident since it’s been so high profile amongst the general circle I hang with. Nonetheless I do hope David recovers quickly and of course do not will an incident like this on anyone regardless of fault.
If you can’t avoid/stop and hit someone with enough force to do this sort of damage to them, you were driving too fast for conditions. Just because the city has a 30 mi/hr speed limit doesn’t mean it is ever safe to do that speed through that intersection, especially at night.
I was there, I saw the whole freaking thing. Unlike some of the people that maybe heard David get hit, I saw him try to run across the cross walk. He had a red light….hey barely broke into a run before he got hit. It didn’t matter if the car was going 30 mph or 10 mph, no one was going to avoid hitting a pedestrian when he runs right in front of your car and you have zero time to react.
As a pedestrian, it’s wise not to run in front of moving cars. I just don’t understand why he didn’t wait the extra 2 seconds to let the car pass before he decided to cross the cross walk. There are big red hands lit up for a reason…it means don’t cross…especially at night when it’s hard to see.
Kansei, your comment is ludicrous. Since no driver can avoid hitting a pedestrian/cyclist/another car/animal if they pull out in front of you, following your rule would mean that no cars could ever go faster than 5mph, on any road, anywhere. That’s pretty unreasonable.
Justin, your report sounds very credible and accurate. This accident is an unfortunate example of why it’s NOT a good idea to ignore the red “don’t walk” sign if you’re a pedestrian. People do ignore it frequently….and not only does this selfish action impede the flow of traffic (preventing vehicles from turning), but more seriously it can result in life-threatening bodily injury, as it did for David in this incident. Why is everyone in such a hurry to get across the street? Please slow down and respect traffic signals….they are there for a damn good reason.
I was there the night of the accident at the rear of the group that Dave was in. I can’t recall if the crosswalk walk was a go but the driver did immediately stop and was quite upset about the accident. He did not appear to be intoxicated but I’m sure the police would have given a breathalizer to him which I didn’t see happen if they thought he had been drinking. He was a younger driver and I feel terrible for Dave because it was awful thing to witness (It’s been replaying in my head ever since) but thank god we had friends in our group who were nurses, I also have to give an A+ to the Seattle Police and Seattle Fire. The police were there within a minute (of course it happened in front of the station) and aid was there immediately.
I would hope that everyone have compassion for both people and wait until all the details are known but again the driver did stop immediately.
I’ve not yet embraced the Car2Go culture, but I’ve seen it in full force during my walk to work in SLU and around Cap Hill in the evenings and weekends. With a concept of paying per-minute, I’m just curious as to how many drivers are going a bit too fast for their specific neighborhood, or who may be driving a bit more aggressively than usual to save a buck or two. This is not intended to be a blanket statement towards all C2G drivers; however, I have seen multiple instances of these cars pulling U-Turns in the middle of the road to secure a parking spot, accelerating as fast as these little wind-up cars can go, and driving well over the posted speed limit.
I think if these charged by the distance, we may have safer roads.
Ok, everyone. Stop with your opinions on Car2Go. No one cares and it had nothing to do with why this guy got hit by the car.
It could have everything to do with why David got hit. If there were no Car2go would this car have even been there to hit him?
Why do we want to make it easier for people to drive around rather than walking or using transit?
And why do you choose this terrible accident to jump on your no car soapbox, one that could easily be saved for later. Especially when one victim is very injured and the other is probably an emotional wreck through all of this. Timing is everything and so is empathy, both of which you lack in, clearly.
Did you say the same thing when people were editorializing against drunk driving in the immediate aftermath of the 520 tragedy? The best time to talk about a solution is when the problem is fresh in our minds.
By the numbers, driving is the most dangerous thing most of us will do. I’m not anti-car, but I worry about things like car sharing that put people behind the wheel who might otherwise have been weeded out of the driving pool.
Get your car-sharing hatred out of this blog. Write a story or go bother someone else. David is a great guy and people are here for him and to learn more…. Not for your rants.
I drove a Zipcar for the first 5 years I lived here and never once had an accident. What happened was just that, and accident. It could have been anyone, whether an owner or a renter, that was caught up in this.
You contradict yourself in bringing up the 520 accident, which was caused by what….? A privately owned vehicle operated by a drunk driver.
Just go find somewhere else to vent please and let his friends support him and not have to read your babble!
This article is about an accident – between David Daley and a Car2Go driver. It’s perfectly reasonable to discuss the merits of car sharing in response to a rash of Capitol Hill car sharing crashes – I don’t see how that diminishes the sympathy we all feel for David. If you have something positive to say in that regard, please do so rather than your rude demands for my silence. While I barely know David, I contributed to the fund for his recovery. Have you?
As for your safe Zipcar record, congratulations – it doesn’t speak to whether these services make us less safe. Nor does the example of a person crashing a private car.
Why yes I have. He is a dear friend.
I just meant to say to please start your own article/thread/blog to discuss the topic instead of here. I agree to some of your points regarding the subject but just feel like this is not the place to do it. Thanks.
I hope the victim will be okay, and that is the most important thing. I also do think the Car2Go debate is a legitimate one to have here, especially as the discussion has been raised. I think in many ways that these services help everyone–I got rid of my car when I moved to Seattle because of the great transit system and the options for car rental and I’ve never had any issues with driving (no tickets, etc, with 20+ years of driving experience including cross country driving). Many people with their own cars drive like crazy maniacs, and many with their own cars drink and drive. Car2Go probably gets a mix of good, safe drivers and irresponsible lunatics, but be grateful that so many of us use it as an option–I don’t have a car taking your parking or clogging up your streets most of the time even though I live in this neighborhood.
To assume that most people who are using the Car2go program are inexperienced/irresponsible drivers is ignorant, plain and simple. Do your fucking research first. I’ve been driving for years accident free and I’ve owned a car since high school. I sold my car 2 months ago because I live downtown Seattle where there’s zero parking and what parking there is is expensive (have you tried to pay for parking by the market in the middle of the summer?). I ride my bike, bus and drive the Car2go Smart cars in order to get around. An irresponsible driver is an irresponsible driver regardless as to whether they own the car or not. There are plenty of bad drivers who own cars and who hit pedestrians and kill people every day. I’ve nearly been run over dozens of times on my bike and I always use bike lanes & hand signals when I’m riding. Not a single one of those cars was a Car2go vehicle. It’s a shame that this man was hit by a car and I hope whoever it was gets put in jail. The nice thing about the Smart cars is they keep track of who’s driving them, so if they can find the damaged vehicle they can see who was driving it at 12am. There’s no way to get out of that. If it was any other car if no one got the plates then we’d probably never find the driver.
You “hope whoever it is gets put in jail”? Did you actually read the other first-hand comments by people who were there? The ones who said it appeared the pedestrian ran right out in front of the driver, who didn’t appear to be at fault and intoxicated. It’s amazing how so many people always operate under the premise that pedestrians are never responsible. If someone waited on the curb until cars were coming, and then ran right out into the street at the last minute and got hit, would that be the driver’s fault too? No? Then why is this situation different?
I used to date David years ago and he was a very cautious person…..blaming him for any wrong doing is absurd and you need your head examined for anything bad you say about him…A car hit a human being….instead of playing Sherlock Holmes or a cop do what us Washingtonians do best and thats help our fellow man!!!!
To the Family if there is anything i can do please let me know ASAP i am always there for David and you all!
I actually wasn’t playing Sherlock Holmes…i was playing witness to an accident. I saw what i saw, the police took my statement, and now they’re doing their investigation based on mine and others statements. He may be a cautious person, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a mistake. Look, i feel bad for the guy and i had been searching the internet to see if he was ok. But I’m just trying to set the record straight because people are saying the driver should be in jail, or the driver was at fault, or hit and run, or intoxicated…i was actually there, i haven’t been calling him names, I’m just telling everyone here what i told the police. If you can’t handle the truth about what happened go watch a Disney movie
I encourage you to check out the police report. It turns out the pedestrian was completely to blame and even got a ticket. http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/06/spd-report-detailing-car2go-vs-pedestrian-collision-released/
Turns out, it was David’s fault. At least as much fault as we can assign him for darting out into traffic, against the signal.
Maybe you need your head examined for your baseless accusation of someone “saying something bad” about him. No one is saying he’s a DB for running out into traffic, just that he is the party at fault. It still sucks that he got hurt.
Force = Mass x Acceleration
Smart Car Mass < Regular Car Mass
No matter who is at fault, results of this crash less bad because of SmartCar
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