Updated Nov. 20 with additional details.
A pedestrian struck by a vehicle in the 23800 block of Highway 99 in Edmonds Tuesday night was identified as a 21-year-old woman with a Kirkland address, Edmonds police said Wednesday.
The woman was crossing Highway 99 from west to east just before 5:45 p.m. when she was struck by a private shuttle bus, driven by a 62-year-old Lynnwood man, Edmonds police spokesperson Cmdr. Josh McClure said. The pedestrian, who was not in a marked crosswalk at the time of the collision, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition with multiple lower body injuries, McClure said.
At the time of the crash, the shuttle bus was carrying eight passengers. There were no injuries to anyone on board.
The driver was cooperative and there was no evidence of impairment, police said.
Struck by driver, not vehicle.
Vehicle-pedestrian collisions usually result in serious injury to the pedestrian. One of my current pedestrian-patient cases was struck by a transit bus where the driver went thru a red light. And sadly, with increased pedestrian age comes a higher rate of fatality.
It’s understandable that some might assume the driver is always at fault, however the data indicates that pedestrian behavior is also an at-fault factor more than 50% of the time.
This intersection is a nightmare. There are near collisions almost every single light as there is no turn signal and no pocket lane. The backups out of the Safeway shopping center make people impatient, and for those trying to travel across HWY99 continuing on 238th or for pedestrians dealing with the car mess, it was only a matter of time. I hope the city can work with the state to do something about this intersection. This will certainly happen again if not. I have almost been in wrecks nearly a dozen times myself with people not yielding.
Its dark now at 5:45 pm. Am I mistaken that the person killed was not in a cross walk but just walking across 99 in the middle of the block? Regardless I agree that it is a mess in that specific place crossing at the crosswalk or driving at that intersection. I too hope the state of WA will pay to have the situation rectified. But the Gov keeps telling us how broke our state is now…I wouldn’t count on their help so I guess everyone just better keep their eyes wide open and be looking for people who might just jet out in front of a car or a bus. When the person walked into traffic on the interstate awhile back that too was unfortunate but not preventable. by the powers that be. Oh yeah leave your cell phones alone when you are driving. If I need to talk to someone I pull off of any road to the side or into a parking lot and do my chatting there. Is this an area where red light cameras were not wanted? Is that still the case?
Deborah – I was on a SB 909 that went by the scene shortly after the accident occurred. She was on the ground in the SB left turn lane on 99. She was being tended to by an EMT or a private citizen. Had she just gone to the corner and crossed at the crosswalk, she might not have been struck by the shuttle bus. The fire engine showed up at the scene just as my bus was getting ready to turn onto 238th. So, no, she was not crossing in the middle of the block. If she was crossing west to east, I wonder if she was running to catch a NB Swift bus.
Hi Melissa. Thanks for the info. Sad thing it is. Maybe she was trying to get somewhere quickly. Maybe she just got careless. Regardless it’s just sad. She probably has a family that is feeling devastated right now. I feel sorry for the ones that hit her too. Horrible to see that I would guess. Botton line is that everyone needs to slow down and look around everywhere when they are driving anything. I have noticed one spot I am worried about in 5 corners area. There is a bike lane that is a turn lane at 276th and main. Right across from the 7-11. The way it is set up a driver of a car has to cross over the bike lane to do the R turn onto Main or 212Th the same. I am particularly careful there and use your mirrors and turn your head to make sure no bikes are coming. I hope they can fix this as I do worry about the Bicyclists there. And 5 mnutes in time is not worth it. Don’t tailgate…the folks with insurance if they just bump someone are always at fault so that is raised insurance costs for ya. Be careful out there everyone.
You raise a good point, Tom. At this intersection, left turn traffic can legally turn through the crosswalk when pedestrians have a WALK light! Same thing at 224th & Hwy99 where a woman was seriously injured a few years ago. She was crossing with a WALK signal and hit by a left-turning motorist with a green light.
Both these intersections are missing what traffic engineers call a “protected left turn”~ which prohibits left turns when pedestrians are crossing with a WALK signal. Motorists must wait until they get a green left-turn arrow (when pedestrians have a WAIT light).
In Edmonds, all other highway intersections have the safer protected left turns. It’s time for Public Works to get them installed at these last two intersections. Please, in the interest of pedestrian safety.
To Luke’s comment…. What the heck. We don’t really know what the investigation will show and the driver is probably devastated. Big jump to a judgement . But glad to know you think ‘Guns don’t hurt people, only other people do.’
Why did the chicken cross the road. I see people crossing the highway all the time outside of the crosswalks sometimes with a crosswalk just a short distance away sometimes they are paying attention and sometimes they are like zombies, even at a crosswalk I see people crossing who aren’t paying attention they just blindly walk out into traffic without looking or are pre occupied with their phone. I probably like many drivers have had close calls. Seems just about every week I hear about one or 2 people being hit, why well seems we have more aggressive faster drivers than we used to we have more pedestrians that aren’t being safe around cars I see the same with bike riders. What to do about it I don’t know but one thing is for sure the pedestrian is always going to pay the highest price.
There are yield to pedestrian signs on the 238th ST traffic signal poles – east and west side of 99. As someone who used to cross that intersection on foot, I’d always make eye contact with the NB turning drivers – so the ones turning from 238th onto 99. It might help if the walk signal timing was adjusted just slightly to give people a fighting chance to get across the street before drivers got impatient and started to turn onto 99.