Today I witnessed something I've never before seen. Car Vs Pedestian accident. Happened on Elliot Ave near the old PI building. Car was going about 40 mph, the body caved in the windshield and the head left a big open hole. I saw the victim's sneaker about 100 yards down the street.

Ouch . . . brutal. I assume the pedestrian died?

Did you see what happened, or who was at fault?

One car stopped in its lane, the car in the other lane did not. I'd guess that the other driver did not see the person walking in the crosswalk, it was early and dark. Fire department showed up very quickly, maybe 4-5 minutes. Victim was alive when the ambulance showed up, but it looked like they were doing chest compressions as they loaded her up on the ambulance.

Fuuuuuuuck. That makes me ill.

What kinda car?

Didn't really look at the car. The driver stopped and was in tears. Happened right in front of the 201 Elliot building, 6:30 AM ish

Dam bro sorry to hear this, I saw an incident almost exactly like this in Portland about 15 years ago as I was working. It was crazy.

Car v Ped suck... I witnessed one about 6mo ago on a 55mph Highway. Guy was crossing to get his mail and wasn't paying attention. Stepped out into the front bumper of a Ford F250...

Sorry to hear this. I'm serious about one thing though... If you cannot sleep find yourself having issues, look up a CIS counselor. Critical incidents can like this can really suck to deal with.

I have almost been in this scenario, both as the driver and as the pedestrian. Luckily I was able to avoid both times.

In fact, just the other day I was driving my son to school and there was a box truck in the inside lane that was turning left (no blinker), I was on the outside lane continuing forward. The box truck made it where I couldn't see across the street to see if they were stopping for a pedestrian to cross or actually turning. I ended up slowing down and actually stopping at a green light at the crosswalk just to make sure that there wasn't a person there. There wasn't, and the box truck a second later made his left, unsignaled turn, but it was enough of a flashback for me to take the extra few seconds and STOP and make sure the walk was clear.


Sorry you had to see/go through that. Make sure you talk to people about it. Death, injury, or just a vision shock like that can live in your head for many years.

sorry man, that's no way to start your day. few years back I was home visiting family from the Army and was heading to the next town over. a LONG 10 mile stretch of highway with no turns at all but lots and lots of driveways and side roads. old guy in a tiny 2wd pickup was turning left 2 cars in front of me so we slowed down. 2 punks in almost matching big bodied hoopties with 24inch rims didn't like how slow we were going. first one passed before the guy turned. 2nd one tboned him at at least 75mph. truck was destroyed and guy wasn't moving when ambulance/police showed up to block off the scene. filled out witness statements and left.

Seeing stuff like that sucks. I've seen a guy on a motorcycle get spit out the back of a semi. Not awesome.

Damn that sucks. Did you notice if there were signals for the crosswalk? If the light for the car that hit the victim was green then it sounds like the peds fault. Tragic regardless. I've seen a number of instances where the person in the left lane is waiting to turn left on green and the inside lane going the other direction is stopped but the outside lane is still moving (often at a high rate of speed). Person takes their left not seeing the oncoming traffic in the outside lane and gets nailed.


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Pedestrians in the PNW are some of the worst, when it comes to safety. So many people just blindly step into the street and trust that cars see them and stop. I always joke about how bad it is in Texas, where cars try to hit pedestrians. I grew up with looking both ways, and crossing when clear. Apparently, that lesson was never taught up here.

I think there's some truth to that. Around here, pedestrians actually DO have the right of way.

A few years ago I was living in Kirkland. If you've ever been to downtown Kirkland, you've seen the flag holders at each end of every crosswalk. When you want to cross the street, you grab a little orange flag, and the cars come to a fucking SCREECHING HALT. Pedestrians are second only to God in Kirkland.



Well, this nice Kirkland resident (me) went on a business trip to India. There I was in New Delhi, about to step off the sidewalk, when a homeless local woman grabbed my arm and made me wait. Apparently in New Delhi, the cars don't come to a screeching halt when Joe Pedestrian wants to cross the street.

Yeah, I think she saved my bacon that day.

You are starting to see these flags and push button activated flashing lights more and more all over. A few places in Olympia are starting to use the flag system. Everyone is in such a rush to get from point A to point B that every little bit helps when crossing the road.