Fw: Pedestrian killed on Lake City Way

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Lee Bruch

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Apr 2, 2021, 3:35:03 PM4/2/21
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This applies throughout Seattle on major Arterials

ARC  -  Aurora Reimagined Coalition


Lee Bruch

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From: lakecity...@googlegroups.com <lakecity...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mark von Walter <mvonw...@comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, April 2, 2021 12:12 PM
To: Clara Cantor <cl...@seattlegreenways.org>
Cc: Lake City Greenways <LakeCity...@googlegroups.com>; casib <ca...@uw.edu>; Sandra Perkins <sandra...@seanet.com>; Motzer Tim <timm...@aol.com>; Debora Juarez <debora...@seattle.gov>
Subject: Re: Pedestrian killed on Lake City Way
 
This tragic news of yet another pedestrian death in our neighborhood came within an hour of completing my reading of Angie Schmitt’s Right of Way.  Schmitt’s well documented book about pedestrian and cycling safety makes a strong point of the disproportionately serious impacts auto traffic has on pedestrians and cyclists in disadvantaged neighborhoods and neighborhoods divided by major traffic routes, ie 522, 523, 513 et al.  Statistically much higher rates of fatalities occur compared with affluent neighborhoods. 

The Lake CIty community needs serious work on comprehensive pedestrian safety improvements, especially safe crosswalks at convenient locations instead of the typical five block intervals along LCW.  With increasing new residential and commercial development along these routes, it becomes even more serious.  We need to advocate SDOT and WSDOT for comprehensive improvements to stop the fast growing list of local fatalities.


Mark von Walter
Cedar Park

On Apr 1, 2021, at 9:30 AM, Clara Cantor <cl...@seattlegreenways.org> wrote:

Hi Lake City neighbors, 

A 53-year-old woman was hit by a car on Monday while walking across Lake City Way just past the Fred Meyer. She died afterwards at Harborview from her injuries. Here's the article on the SPD blotter.

This is incredibly tragic. If anyone knows or has connections to the victim's family, please let us know. If they are interested, we would be ready to help put together a memorial walk, share a fundraising page, or whatever it is they need or would be interested in.

Every tragedy is one too many. 

Wishing you all well,
Clara
--
Clara Cantor
she/her/hers

Community Organizer
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways



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Douglas MacDonald

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Apr 2, 2021, 3:44:14 PM4/2/21
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Wholeheartedly agree.  

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Brent McFarlane

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Apr 2, 2021, 5:13:54 PM4/2/21
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SPD files their report in blame the victim language, “pedestrian was reportedly not in a marked crosswalk” when in fact being in any crosswalk gives the pedestrian the right of way and should mean they are legally protected. Was the driver ‘reportedly' driving too fast to stop in time? 

Anyone who has crossed Lake City Way as a pedestrian or bicyclist in recent years, at any crosswalk can tell you that traffic is usually aggressive and routinely at excessive speeds. 

  • Drivers exercise due care - Every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian upon any roadway and shall give warning by sounding the horn when necessary (RCW 46.61.245).
     
  • Stop for pedestrians at intersections - Drivers shall stop at intersections to allow pedestrians and bicycles to cross the road within a marked or unmarked crosswalk (RCW 46.61.235). See Washington's Crosswalk Law for more information.



Woman Dies Following Lake City Collision

by Public Affairs on April 1, 2021 8:46 am

SPD detectives are investigating after a woman died following a motorist/pedestrian collision on Lake City Way.

Around 8:30 PM on Tuesday, a woman was driving northbound in the 13300 block of Lake City Way when she struck a female pedestrian in the roadway. The pedestrian was reportedly not in a marked crosswalk at the time of the crash.

Medics transported the 53-year-old pedestrian to Harborview Medical Center.

The driver stopped at the scene and was interviewed by an SPD Drug Recognition Expert, who found no signs of impairment.

The day after the collision, police learned the pedestrian had died.

SPD’s Traffic Collision detectives are investigating.






Gary Yngve

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Apr 2, 2021, 5:19:59 PM4/2/21
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As a side note, T intersections (133rd & LCW) or staggered intersections (Greenwood Ave and some of the streets around 70th St) make it harder for the car driver to recognize as an intersection.  The real blame here belongs to SDOT/WSDOT... what a hideous stroad!

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Barbara Phinney

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Apr 3, 2021, 7:12:24 PM4/3/21
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What if there is some blame on the driver? Distracted driving, traveling over the speed limit, or too fast for conditions, none of these are mentioned as possible factors and why not? Only an evaluation of impairment by drugs or alcohol was done, and not even by a laboratory method. 

By the language used by SPD and echoed in the Seattle Times article it’s made to sound like maybe the pedestrian just used bad judgment and shouldn’t have been crossing the street at all. That slanted narrative contributes to the problem of pedestrian safety. Saying it happened in a unmarked crosswalk contributes to the deception.

Like Brent posted earlier, the law states that at all crosswalks, whether marked or not, pedestrians have the right of way. 
  • Drivers exercise due care - Every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian upon any roadway and shall give warning by sounding the horn when necessary (RCW 46.61.245).
     
  • Stop for pedestrians at intersections - Drivers shall stop at intersections to allow pedestrians and bicycles to cross the road within a marked or unmarked crosswalk (RCW 46.61.235). See Washington's Crosswalk Law for more information.

It’s also an age as disability issue, older people get hit and killed by vehicles more than younger people. The woman struck and killed by a vehicle was 53, not elderly, but not young either. 


Barbara Phinney
Bitter Lake

On Apr 2, 2021, at 2:30 PM, Gary Yngve <gary....@gmail.com> wrote:



Gary Yngve

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Apr 3, 2021, 7:39:13 PM4/3/21
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" Distracted driving, traveling over the speed limit, or too fast for conditions, none of these are mentioned as possible factors and why not?"

It is quite possible some of this may be true, but impossible to prove.  Claiming them as possible for this particular driver at this particular time may amount to slander? 
In my dream world, all cars would be equipped with blackboxes/gps and inward- and outward-facing dashcams...  

But from the point of view of DOT, they need to build infra that accounts for all road users to make mistakes... which means fewer lanes, lower speeds, regular marked crossings that don't require excessive waiting, etc.

-g

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Forrest Baum

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Apr 3, 2021, 7:53:20 PM4/3/21
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It is quite possible some of this may be true, but impossible to prove
Almost all of those are possible to prove, and many times a simple interview will find the story. (I'm sure you've seen "I was on my phone", for one) 
 
I think the point is that many times crashes are described in a way that makes a lot of assumptions, and well before traffic collision investigation results could even be completed. 

SNG has a campaign to push for using "Crash Not Accident", but presenting best practices to local law enforcement groups could be helpful. We could move that to a citywide effort. 
Forrest 

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Douglas MacDonald

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Apr 3, 2021, 10:43:58 PM4/3/21
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It would be helpful to know the facts.  Three distinct set of “crosswalk” circumstances may be in play.  Sorting them out isn’t dispositive of all the issues.  For example, excessive vehicle speed or driver impairment may moot some fine pedestrian behavior and crosswalk maintenance distinctions.  So you can’t take this kind of analysis and without more, translate it into “blame” or “responsibility” of “fault” or whatever word works to hone in on how people will come out feeling about the crash.

That said, then to continue:

1.  Mid-block street crossings by pedestrians are not a good idea, and illegal in most cases.  Was this a mid-block crossing?

2.  All legal crosswalks, all of them, whether “marked” or not, are equal in the allocation of right-of-way between pedestrians and drivers (cars, bicycles, electric bicycles, scooter, etc).  A “painted” crosswalk is a welcome reminder to everyone of the existence of a crosswalk.  Ideally, all legal crosswalks should generally be painted.  Although it would not be q good idea, all things considered, to paint crosswalks across Aurora at the block-by-block unsignalized intersections.  The bizarre construction of all the new curb ramps on Aurora where it is safety folly to encourage unsignalized crossing should never have passed a simple common sense test, whatever FHWA in Olympia apparently insisted on. (How much better an investment of ADA dollars it would have been to fix the sidewalks themselves to and from the signalized crossing points and thereby also to facilitate accessibility to the E Line stops and shelters).

3.  If a pedestrian is not in a “marked crosswalk,” that may be because the crosswalk — a legal crosswalk — is not marked by SDOT.  The pedestrian has the right of way regardless of whether or not the crosswalk, if it is a crosswalk, is “marked..”  Marking, by the way, means a visible crosswalk marking.  The “shadow” crosswalks all over Seattle reflecting SDOT’s chronic inattention to pedestrian safety issues, aren’t “marked” crosswalks just because they were last painted six years ago!

4.  In a better, safer world (a) Vehicle traffic would be slower.  And speeders should be ticketed!  (b Education and culture should deter pedestrians from mid-block crossings. And if mid-block pedestrians are ticketed, they should have no complaint; and (c) Much greater attention should actually be paid to marking crosswalks — almost all crosswalks in ares of any significant pedestrian use — to alert vehicle operators and pedestrians alike that this is where pedestrians belong and where heed must be paid to their entitlement to safe crossing.  

Brent McFarlane

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Apr 3, 2021, 10:45:37 PM4/3/21
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To Gary: Asking questions about a drivers actions, responsibilities  or state of mind regarding a collision / crash that happened while they were operating the moving vehicle that caused the injury or death is not the same as making a claim about the driver and is definitely not slander to answer your question. However for SPD to state ‘the pedestrian was reportedly ….’  is not asking a question it’s making an anonymous (pre-investigation) claim. Those claims are echoed by news reports.

Also it’s not clear when SPD Detectives started their investigation. This report indicates that SPD learned the day after the crash that the pedestrian died. 
When did they start investigating?

Gary Yngve

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Apr 3, 2021, 11:00:25 PM4/3/21
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Brent, I guess I'm cynical.  In an ideal world, investigators would dig into the driver's actions and state of mind, as would be done in a setting involving a pilot or other professional.  Here, I would expect a driver to lawyer-up and not answer any such questions.  And even if they did, highly unlikely that police would choose to prosecute, as what lead-footed car-driving jury would convict?  Absent video/eyewitnesses, cellphone data, or toxicology, I wouldn't expect to derive any evidence from interviewing the driver other than "sorry, i did not see them", "they appeared out of nowhere".  And if they were able to coerce a driver to confess to being distracted or speeding, that gets into social-justice territory where if the driver had more privilege/rank, they would have lawyered up and kept their mouth shut.

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Lee Bruch

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Apr 3, 2021, 11:21:31 PM4/3/21
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The North Precinct Advisory Council meets this Wednesday April 7 at 7:00 via Zoom .
They allocate 15 minutes for public questions. It's worth a question about this.
To get the link, and to register for questions, and see the agenda go to

Lee Bruch

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From: 'Brent McFarlane' via Greenwood-Phinney Greenways <greenwood-phi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 3, 2021 7:45 PM
To: Greenwood-Phinney Greenways Google Group <greenwood-phi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: SPD Report Language Re: Pedestrian killed on Lake City Way
 

Brent McFarlane

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Apr 3, 2021, 11:24:28 PM4/3/21
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Those questions would more likely be answered by other witnesses, cameras - pedestrians and / or other drivers near the scene.  

Lee Bruch

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Apr 3, 2021, 11:28:12 PM4/3/21
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Sorry, be "this"  I meant asking questions about SPD's terminology in their public statement and its framing.
Obviously such a forum is not the place to discuss the circumstances nor the specifics of the indident


Lee Bruch

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    Lee....@outlook.com

From: 'Brent McFarlane' via Greenwood-Phinney Greenways <greenwood-phi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 3, 2021 8:24 PM

To: Greenwood-Phinney Greenways Google Group <greenwood-phi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: SPD Report Language Re: Pedestrian killed on Lake City Way
 

Barbara Phinney

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Apr 3, 2021, 11:49:56 PM4/3/21
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My post was intended to bring up the problem with SPD’s framing, language and terminology and process used and then echoed by the media, like the Seattle Times article, inferring some blame on the pedestrian hit by a vehicle. 

And imo this is an issue for Greenways to wrestle with, also.

Barbara

On Apr 3, 2021, at 8:28 PM, Lee Bruch <Lee....@outlook.com> wrote:



Brock Howell

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Apr 5, 2021, 1:46:00 PM4/5/21
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From SDOT's message, it wasn't clear to me whether the pedestrian was in *any* crosswalk — it was just clear that the person wasn't in a marked one.

Best,

Brock Howell



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