A spectacular Friday night crash near the intersection of Main Street and Olympic Avenue sent 67-year-old Edmonds resident Ann Lui to Harborview with both wrists and ankles broken, several broken ribs and possible internal injuries. As of Monday evening, she has had surgery on her wrists and ankles, and remain in the intensive care unit at Harborview. Her son, also an Edmonds resident, has been by her side and talking to her ever since.
My Edmonds News spoke with Lui’s son, who filled us in on some details, but requested that his name not be used:
Lui’s son told us that his mother had just left her waitressing job at a Westgate-area restaurant and was driving east on Main Street, preparing to turn left to her Olympic Avenue home. That’s when everything went wrong.
She saw a pair of headlights approaching fast, going the wrong way in the downhill eastbound lane — and heading straight for her. As she swerved to make her turn, an oncoming vehicle slammed into the passenger side of her car. The impact deployed her air bag and pushed her car over the curb, where it took out a bus stop sign before coming to rest across the sidewalk.
“It all happened so fast,” her son said. “I’m very thankful for the air bags, that she was wearing her seat belt, and that someone saw what happened and called 911.”
“Fire District 1 got the call at exactly 10:30 p.m.,” said Leslie Hynes, spokesperson for the Fire District. “Our crew was on the scene four minutes and 50 seconds after receiving that call.”
Emergency crews removed Lui from her car and rushed her to Harborview. Also transferred to Harborview was a passenger in the second car. The driver of that car was treated at the scene and transferred to Swedish Edmonds, according to Hynes.
While the police investigation is still ongoing, Edmonds Police Sgt. Josh McClure was able to provide some preliminary details. According to McClure, the car that hit Lui, a Honda Accord, was being driven by a 16-year-old male and carried a 17-year-old male passenger.
“Speed was definitely a factor in this accident. At this time we’re treating it as a two-car crash ” said McClure. “Our investigation is still in progress, and more information will be available when this concludes.”
But according to Lui’s son, there’s more to the story.
“There was another car that wasn’t directly involved in the accident,” he said.
Lui strongly suspects that the two cars were street racing down Main Street hill when one of them lost control and struck his mother’s car. “The other car just kept on going,” he added.
“The two young men in the car that hit Mom are denying that they were racing,” he said. “The police know who the other party is, but since that car wasn’t involved in the crash they tell me it’s not part of their investigation.
“Right now I’m just extremely grateful that my mom is in good hands,” he said. “But her injuries will be life-changing. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to return to her job at the restaurant.”
My Edmonds News will continue to follow this story and post updates as they become available.
— Story and photo by Larry Vogel
This is a tragic story that should prompt action by police and city transportation officials. Dealing with excessive speed on the streets of Edmonds does not seem to be a priority. At one time, drivers did not dare to exceed posted speed limits on streets like 5th, 9th, Main, or Walnut for fear of being ticketed. However, it is rare that I see speed enforcement efforts being undertaken and there is almost no effort made to “calm traffic.” I wish Ann Lui a full and speedy recovery.
Well said Mr. Miller. City Council needs to allocate more resources to our Police Department that will be dedicated to traffic enforcement. The PD staffing level is less than what it was in 2001!
I live on Third Avenue South and it sometimes seems as though it has been been declared a race track and, no, I have never seen anyone pulled over or given a ticket for speeding. Speeding and pedestrian safety seem to be an extremely low priority item for the police in Edmonds.
It’s unclear that the police would be able to prevent incidents like this from happening, unless it’s by dealing with violators so harshly that they will not engage in street racing here. It’s hard to do that unless you can prove they were racing, though. If there were any witnesses to it that saw that, I’d urge you to talk to the police about it.
The normal response to this — to set up speed traps during the day to catch people exceeding the limit going down the hill — will probably not catch the same people who engage in street racing at night. They’ll catch people out running errands, who are somewhat less of a danger to public safety.
Any word or update on Ann’s conditions since this tragedy happened?