(Images: Doug McLaughlin with permission)
The view up Broadway from Pike from an SDOT cam
A big response to a collision involving a Metro bus and a car that sent the PT Cruiser’s driver and two passengers to the hospital tied up Broadway for Tuesday night’s commute.
The crash was reported just before 5 PM and involved a route 43 bus. The driver of the car was briefly trapped in the auto as it smoked following the collision.
Witnesses said the car appeared to have slammed into the rear of the bus. UPDATE 3/9/2016 11:05 AM: SPD tells us that police found signs of impairment and the car’s driver will be booked into King County Jail upon release from the hospital.
The driver was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Seattle Fire responded to reports of other injuries suffered in the crash including at least two passengers. One passenger was reportedly unconscious and unresponsive. Altogether, SFD transported three to Harborview — there were two reported injuries on the bus but they were not serious. UPDATE: From SFD: “Three patients transported to HMC after car/bus collision. 1 life-threatening injuries, 2 non-life threatening.”
SPD’s traffic collision investigation team was documenting the crash scene. Broadway was closed in both directions during the response and traffic was blocking the First Hill Streetcar.
A police drug recognition expert was dispatched to the crash.
(Image: Tim Durkan with permission to CHS)
UPDATE: SPD confirmed the car rear-ended the bus and says the three patients taken to the hospital are adult males:
Police are on the scene of an injury collision involving a car and a King County Metro coach near the intersection of Denny and Broadway. The collision occurred just before 5 p.m. in the northbound lanes of Broadway, just south of Denny, when a passenger car rear ended a Metro coach.
The three adult male passengers of the car suffered injuries as a result of this collision, and one man’s injuries are life threatening. Seattle Fire medics are on scene providing emergency medical care. It does not appear that anyone aboard the Metro coach was hurt.
Traffic Collision Investigation detectives have been called to the scene.
Commuters are advised to consider alternate routes while the investigation continues.
UPDATE 3/9/2016 9:45 AM: A Metro spokesperson said their driver suffered an injured knee in the crash:
Seattle Fire Department handled patients from the vehicle that rear-ended the bus. I later heard that our operator was taken to a local hospital (not Harborview) for her knee injury. Metro supervisors were at the scene to help manage the situation and work with police.
According to Metro, Route 43 travels Broadway on some trips, both northbound and southbound, operating “in-service” for scheduling purposes as it returns to the north end of town rather than “to terminal.”
Metro also confirmed that there were passengers on board but confirmed that there were no serious injuries reported.
Metro says their driver won’t be on leave for an investigation as the determination at this point is that her bus was rear-ended. “Preliminarily, she was checked out for a slight injury, is working with her supervisors and might be back operating the route as soon as today,” we’re told.
How on earth did they get enough speed on Broadway to have that bad if an impact.
look at the size of the car. It’s really tiny to begin with. Not much in the way of protection for anybody.
Life threatening injuries. Like questioned above, how fast were they going. Crazy.
Also, those helicopters, so annoying.
Right? Ever since that KOMO helicopter crash I’ve been baffled at how those news helicopters are allowed to hover for hours on end over the most densely populated neighborhood in the State.
I’d worry more about the copious amount of jet traffic inbound to SeaTac more than a couple news helos.
Except the jets rarely crash while news and medical helicopters crash frequently.
The planes on their way to SeaTac emit noise that lasts only a few moments and can barely be heard. The helicopters that hover for long periods of time are highly disruptive and emit noise that is significantly louder than the passing planes.
Additionally the crash risks.
Of all the buses, it had to be one of the brand-new articulated trolleys. This one has only been in service for a few weeks and will likely be taken out of rotation for just a little while for some inspections.
Unfortunate and agreed, I live on the Pike-Pine bus trunk line and commute every day on the bus and have yet to ride one.
So sorry you’re potentially slightly inconvenienced by a life-threatening accident involving others. I hope you find the proper emotional and medical support for your condition. Whatever happens here, make sure to continue to focus most on the wellbeing of inanimate objects.
The article now explicitly states that the driver was impaired.
In which I have zero sympathy, and am so glad this negligent driver didn’t hurt any actual innocent people (pedestrians, cyclists, etc.)
The bus appears to have been struck in the right rear by the left front part of the SUV. Hard to envision unless the SUV was speeding down the bike lane before it veered left into the bus.
The bus looks relatively undamaged and it’s hard to see the extent of damage on the car’s front end. It’s possible the position of the car relative to the bus is from rebounding after the crash. I wouldn’t assume the angle of the impact from it.
It may have been the driver having a medical emergency resulting in loss of control. I hope whoever is in critical condition survives.
Or it could have been distraction, texting, poor driving, not seeing the large purple and yellow bus with all its pretty LED tail lights in front of them. Or heck, it’s plausible a cyclist did the usual and darted across traffic – even a pedestrian.
I think we should leave it up to the SPD and Metro to determine exactly what happened. Amateur speculation is not helpful.