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A 12-year-old was struck by a driver while crossing at the busy four-way stop intersection at 19th and Aloha Thursday.
Seattle Fire responded to the collision just before 4:30 PM to treat the injured child. SFD says the patient’s guardian declined transport to the hospital.
According to Seattle Fire and emergency radio updates, the vehicle was moving at a low rate of speed when the driver struck the child.
There were no reported arrests.
The intersection is protected by a four-way stop and has a flashing red signal to alert vehicles at a busy crossing near St. Joseph’s School and a few blocks from both Stevens Elementary and Meany Middle School.
The incident follows the hit and run collision last week at 22nd and E Madison that killed 80-year-old Bari Hill.
Early Thursday, another reported collision with a pedestrian near 18th and Madison turned out to be a medical incident not involving a car. SFD said a woman in her 30s found down in a driveway at the scene was transported to Swedish First Hill for treatment and observation.
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Our city has outgrown our road system and our leaders have failed to step up and fix the problem. If King County Metro buses or Link were sending half a dozen people (or more) to the hospital every week, we would demand that they be shut down until they were made more safe. When KCM detected defects with some buses last year, they took something like 10% of their fleet out of service. Instead, we continue to let our unsafe roadways injure driver, cyclist, and pedestrian a like with no urgent action or seemingly any concerns from the Mayor’s office at all. We are rapidly approaching day 180 of what was touted as a 90-day review of street safety. What gives SDOT? Do we need a class action lawsuit to force action?
What exactly would you like them to do?
I think first step is to ban vehicles over a certain size from driving in the city without a permit. Say nothing bigger than a sedan. Jail time if caught.
Automatic jail time for people on their phones while driving. Charge them with something like attempted vehicular manslaughter.
Jail time for running red lights, stop signs, not yielding to pedestrians, etc.
IMO better public education could help. Between 2010 and 2020 the population of Seattle grew by 200,000. Drivers need to be made aware that commute times will continue increasing. Every time improvements are made (23rd., Rainier) there is the expectation that traffic will continue flowing at the same pace or else the assumption is SDOT messed up. In reality traffic will slow, and mission accomplished if fewer people are hit. Accidents like this should also have more attention drawn: signs, press releases, etc. by the city. No one wants to hit someone and the chance of this happening should be top of mind, ahead of ETA
I fully agree that safer infrastructure is needed and will continue advocating for it. But having put in the legwork to get a crosswalk beefed up, only to be informed that the city has a years-long lag in funding even for projects deemed necessary, I think we need to look at all available options. When the city puts out information regarding street improvements, they could easily include population data and reality check folks (some graciously provided comments in this thread) who think they can continue to safely cross town at the same speed regardless of density. They could also list car vs. pedestrian/bike accidents as a scare tactic. From the article you shared:
‘Thoughtfully designed and implemented, education programs can and do induce safer travel behaviors, especially if they target a specific audience with new and actionable information.’
You can’t make safe roads, people have to make the roads safe which means taking care when walking and crossing streets, stopping for stop signs and signals, no jay walking, no speeding, no looking at your phone when driving or walking etc. and lot’s of patrols enforcing all of the laws that protect people on the streets. I see all of the behaviors daily that make streets unsafe from pedestrians, drivers and bikes.
Imagine how much of a monster you have to be to blame a kid for crossing a crosswalk for being hit.
Nobody blamed a kid. Everyone using shared transportation spaces must lawfully obey all regulations while also being vigilant to protect themselves from illegal or inattentive users. And we expect government agencies to design and build these shared spaces to be as safe as possible while also enforcing laws and regulations to a degree that discourages scofflaws.
I hope you didn’t read that into my post. What I said is a general statement for everyone.
It was more like a threat. “Better watch out or I’ll run over you”
You absolutely can make roads safer, by narrowing them and adding speed humps, curves, and other traffic calming devices to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists rather than prioritizing the convenience of car drivers. People naturally drive as quickly as the road allows them to–that’s human nature. They slow down when they’re made to slow down.
Don’t be ridiculous… our roads aren’t the problem DRIVERS are… aggressive, distracted, careless drivers who’ve become accustomed to being able to to as they please with zero consequences. Stop signs and speed limits have become practically meaningless in this city, other than in school zones, because they know the camera is always there and doesn’t care what excuses they have. The only way to solve this is for drivers to be accountable.
And yet in spite of how all this, Seattle is NOT a relative danger for pedestrians as a large metro area in the US when compared PER CAPITA. Don’t forget that INCREASING is not the same and being RELATIVELY AWFUL. Is there an issue in this city that draws out more pearl-clutching? The reality is that Seattle is a big city and it was never built for this many people. This might be hard to hear, but some pedestrian deaths happen in literally every city on the planet. No amount of speed humps or speed limit lowering is gonna make things better. In fact, I would argue that continued limiting of traffic flow is going to make it worse, by frustrating drivers, just as the 25 mph limit has already done. We have already done enough to protect people from themselves, and in the process, we have some of the most entitled pedestrians on the planet. Just because you stand in a crosswalk doesn’t mean you should slow-walk across the street. Just because you’d win in court doesn’t mean you should step into traffic without looking. Educate your children, parents. Be aware of your surroundings. Stop walking and riding your bike like you’re going to save the world by becoming a martyr. SDOT, quit dreaming you can get to an unrealistic “zero deaths” – your efforts are clearly making it worse.
Hmmmm don’t know if Capitol Hill Blog will allow me to say this or not but you’re a real asshole… Stop being such an entitled driver and don’t expect pedestrians to run across the street for you, jerk…
Anger problem??
I think anyone who has someone threaten to run them over in a crosswalk for not walking fast enough has a right to a bit of anger.
Having to actually wait a few seconds at a stop sign – not a very good excuse for homicidal feelings..
Being threatened with death – yeah, go ahead be angry..
https://twitter.com/MikeLindblom/status/1625203687751827456