Camera records year of collisions at one of Seattle’s most dangerous intersections
Jan 9, 2020, 10:20 AM
23rd and John has long been a problematic intersection in Seattle's Central District. (KIRO 7)
(KIRO 7)
Seattle’s 23rd Avenue East and East John Street intersection has long proven problematic, especially in recent years. Those issues are laid bare in a recent video, showing nine separate collisions at the intersection over the course of 2019.
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Spanning Jan. 2019 through Dec. 2019, the collisions include a rear-end crash, a car colliding with a King County Metro bus, and one where a sedan rammed an SUV into another stopped vehicle, before appearing to drive off.
You can watch the full video roundup of 2019’s collisions at 23rd and John below, although be warned — some of the crashes are graphic in nature.
In 2018, that intersection saw 13 separate crashes. At the time, that was the highest number since the Seattle Department of Transportation started collecting data in 2004. Over the last three years, there have been 134 total collisions in the corridor between Boyer Ave East and East John Street. Despite a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour, the average speed of drivers on that stretch of road is 39 mph.
The first segment of construction adding safety improvements to that corridor was finished at the end of 2018.
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SDOT also has designs in place to add skid-resistant surface treatments, upgraded traffic signals, and protected left turn signals. The lack of a left turn signal has been a notable issue at the intersection since at least 2014.
That construction isn’t expect to begin until sometime in 2020.
