Terrible Crash on Aurora Bridge - Closed All This Evening

There was a terrible crash on the Aurora Bridge today at about 11 am between a Ride the Duck bus and a bus carrying North Seattle Community College students and staff. Four people were killed and many critically injured.  The Times is reporting that all those killed were from NSCC.  I called to find out if any Running Start students might have been on the bus but it appears the students were international students.

From SPS:
Buses heading out early, some already arriving at schools to prepare for delays due to bridge crash. We're notifying all 53,000 families.

Comments

Kate Martin said…
This is truly tragic.

The Aurora Bridge is extremely dangerous with buses and wide rigs that can't fit in the narrow lanes or which shy away from the big concrete barriers on the outside lanes. Everyday I watch it when I ride the bus. Our bus often straddles the lane and it totally confuses drivers. Those wide rigs are a threat to the cars along side them and so if we're talking two wide rigs, it gets even worse.

Very sad.
9/24/15, 3:48 PM
mollyspringer said…
I understand blood donations are needed immediately, especially type O.
9/24/15, 4:15 PM
Carol Simmons said…
Kate is correct. This is truly tragic. Driving on the Aurora Bridge is extremely dangerous.

The Bridge lanes should be one lane only each way.
9/24/15, 4:24 PM
Anonymous said…
I suspect more than a few students will be home late tonight - routes are being reworked to reduce impact as much as possible, but there's just so many routes that every one can take, so patience is the word of the day. KIRO reporting tow trucks are arriving, and then SDOT has to inspect the bridge for damage. Crazy day.

Blood donor info here:
http://www.bloodworksnw.org/home/

reader47
9/24/15, 4:33 PM
Andrea Leigh Ptak said…
My daughter left our home in the southend at 4:30 headed to her place in Greenwood. It took her over two hours. She drives that route regularly and said she hates driving in the lane closest to the median. Evidently, a barrier between the two directions was recommended quite some time ago. That's what the desire for federal low taxes gets us—neglected infrastructure.
9/24/15, 7:50 PM
seattle citizen said…
Lane next to barrier is spooky because of nearness of barrier; lane next to oncoming traffic is spooky because of nearness of traffic (closing speed at least 80mph...); lane between the two is scary because cars in lane on either side spook towards middle lane.
Reduce it to two lanes each way with a barrier between. Plenty of room for that, and it's two lane north of bridge, so why not across bridge?
9/24/15, 8:12 PM
seattle citizen said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
9/24/15, 8:13 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more