As Jay’s Cafe owner Misty Qureshi glanced out the window of her business at the two smashed vehicles — one sitting on all four tires and the other lying on its side — she feels that driving has become a bit chaotic on Northeast Bothell Way, or State Route 522, in Kenmore.
“I think the accident happened because of this median in the middle,” she said on May 7, “because people try getting out — any hole, they just see it, which is wrong. They’re not supposed to violate that, but they do it anyway.”
In the second major accident (one was fatal) on SR 522 in the last three months, Northshore Fire Department public-information officer Wendy Booth said in a press release that witnesses stated that at about 10:33 a.m., a beige vehicle traveling eastbound on the 7500 block of SR 522 crossed the centerline and struck a westbound black SUV head-on.
Qureshi called 911 to report the accident while a passerby checked on the victims.
Fire personnel used extrication tools to remove occupants from the two vehicles. One occupant was in critical condition and transported to Harborview Hospital, and another occupant was in serious condition and transported to Evergreen Medical Center. Two other vehicles were involved, but no additional injuries were reported.
Nancy Morgan of Kenmore was on her way back home from the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store when she spoke with the driver of a vehicle that was sideswiped by the beige car during the accident.
“He thought (the beige car) was in the turn lane, but then realized he was coming straight for him,” Morgan said. “(He) said that he had to go up and over the median into oncoming traffic and then back on to miss him, but he still sideswiped him.”
Morgan feels some people may be driving the road for the first time — possibly opting to travel SR 522 to avoid paying tolls on the SR 520 bridge — or may not be familiar with the recent road improvements.
Qureshi added about the median in front of her restaurant and drivers darting in and out of nearby establishments: “I’m really thinking this was the wrong thing to do. Whoever made the decision was totally wrong about the businesses, and so many accidents are going to happen.”
“Clearly, it’s human error,” said Kenmore city engineer Ron Loewen in a May 9 Reporter meeting with Kenmore Police Chief Cliff Sether and City Manager Rob Karlinsey. “We haven’t seen anything obvious with that left-turn pocket to indicate there’s something wrong with the design or anything like that. The other left-turn pockets are working well, the lights are all fine, the roadway’s got good marking on it, signing; and it’s just past an intersection, so vehicles for the most part should be traveling a little bit slower, because either they were just stopped or coming (from) left or right turns out of the intersection.
That’s an odd situation at that location.”
A Kenmore police car blocks off a stretch of State Route 522 during the May 7 accident. Andy Nystrom / Reporter
Even if drivers don’t know the road, Sether said it’s well-marked and people need to obey the speed limit of 45 mph and abide by the traffic laws.
“There isn’t anything out there on 522 that is a surprise to anybody. It’s got directional signs, so if they just pay attention, it will be like navigating the interstate,” Sether said.
Since tolling began on SR 520 this year, Annie Johnson of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) communications department noted that vehicle counters on SR 522 at 68th Avenue Northeast in Kenmore have registered the following statistics since February (the first solid month of SR 522 travel): an average of 1,100 to 1,500 more vehicles are traveling westbound per day; an average of 1,400 to 1,500 additional vehicles are moving eastbound per day.
According to WSDOT Northwest Region Traffic engineer Mark Leth: “We can’t speak to the number of collisions since tolling began because we don’t have access to the data yet. The two collisions in the last couple months on SR 522 have been quite remarkable and therefore at the top of everyone’s mind. WSDOT, Kenmore and Bothell have done major safety work out there with raised curbing to prevent head-on collisions, improved striping and signs — not to mention the road-widening work.”
In the previous Kenmore accident on March 6, a 23-year-old female driver died after her vehicle struck another one on the 6700 block of SR 522. At about 7 a.m., Kristin Berry of Seattle was driving eastbound when she crossed a small median and struck a vehicle heading westbound, according to Sgt. Cindi West, King County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman. Two Bothell residents — a 15-year-old girl and her mother — were injured when their SUV rolled over. They were transported to Evergreen Medical Center and were released that afternoon.
Sether noted that in the fatality accident, there was no indication of drugs or alcohol involved, and the current wreck is still under investigation.
The chief said he and his officers have responded to a host of other traffic accidents — mostly rear-enders — on SR 522, but added that there has been an estimated 50-percent reduction in collisions since the city made major safety improvements along the stretch between 65th Avenue Northeast to the eastern city limits at 83rd Avenue Northeast.
“That’s a big deal,” Karlinsey said. “You don’t see 50-percent reductions in anything very often. I think the city’s made a big push to improve 522; they’ve made it a high priority over the years, and City Council still wants to put in a lot of funding and lobby for a lot of money from the state and the feds to finish the last segment.”
So far, it’s cost $50 million to install two new signals, upgrade other signals, widen travel lanes, add and extend the BAT (business access and transit) lanes, install curbs, gutters and sidewalks, underground all the utilities and perform landscaping throughout the corridor.
It will cost $20 million to do the same from 65th Avenue Northeast to the western city limits at 61st Avenue Northeast.
“But regardless of what we do,” Sether added, “There’s still going to be the human error and the human factor, which basically will always be there and we’ll always have accidents.”
With an increase in traffic flow since bridge tolling began, Sether said officers have seen drivers becoming impatient, cutting off others and “actually stopping and cursing at other people and having a few road-rage incidents.”
More drivers have been talking on cell phones, as well, and officers are ticketing them accordingly.
In order to avoid adding to the accident total on SR 522, Sether advises motorists to focus on their driving, give themselves enough time to reach their destination so they’re not tempted to run a red light or cut someone off.
While speed is often a factor in accidents, Loewen said there hasn’t been talk of lowering the 45 mph limit — which is set by WSDOT — on SR 522.
“You could reduce the speed limit all you want, it’s up to people to pay attention,” Sether added. “We saw people, regardless of what the speed limit is anywhere, we still write numerous tickets for speeding. And during the rush-hour traffic, the speed limit might be 45, but trust me, with the congestion, the speeds don’t get up anywhere near that.”
Despite the tragic accidents, Jeff Schoonover, owner of Fix Auto Northshore (formerly Carriage Case Collision Center), has seen things improve from his desk that looks out onto SR 522. He says the more traffic, the more people have to slow down — way down in some cases.
“I saw some pretty crazy drivers out there,” he said. “I would see the same car every day, you know, the red Mustang or the red Corvette or whatever, just screaming down the road, and I’m thinking, ‘Man, you’ve got to slow down.’ But now when traffic’s really heavy, they can’t do that.”
Bothell Police Department Capt. Bob Woolverton (left) on the scene of a recent accident. Andy Nystrom / Reporter
BOTHELL SCENE
Over in Bothell, Capt. Bob Woolverton said they haven’t seen a substantial increase in wrecks on SR 522 within their jurisdiction over the last few months.
While walking along SR 522 — which was closed off near downtown Bothell due to last week’s tractor-trailer, power-pole collision — Woolverton noted that, like in Kenmore, engineering improvements aim to make the road safer. For instance, drivers have less opportunities to cross the center line while turning left.
The $21.6 million Wayne Curve project was completed at the end of 2011 and plans to relieve congestion on SR 522 at the 96th Avenue Northeast intersection.
“Obviously, you know, we have anecdotal evidence that we’ve got more traffic volume since the tolling began on the State Route 520 bridge, and so with the greater traffic volumes, basically what you really need is greater volumes of patience, too,” he said. “Part of that comes from planning your travels, because do you ever notice that when you’re late, it seems like every light’s red and it ruins your commute? As we get more congested, courtesy is a big issue because we’re basically a community on the roadway.”
Like Kenmore’s Sether noted, modern technology is a major distraction to drivers, especially when cars are all lined up and ready to punch the gas when the light turns green. Woolverton and his fellow officers experienced this on a recent day: A female driver’s navigation system took her attention off the road just before Wayne Curve and she started a four-car collision by rear-ending one car while stopped at a light.
“We all think to ourselves, ‘We’re too smart for that, it’s not going to happen to us’ — until it happens to us,” Woolverton said. “If you need to search for a phone number, if you need to read a text or send a text or whatever, take the couple minutes, pull off the road, take care of your distraction and then get back into traffic. It’s actually more distracting than you really think it is, and it’s obviously way more dangerous, too.”
