Portion of Highway 18 closed from multi-vehicle crash
May 1, 2017, 7:36 AM
Crashes on Highway 18 caused multi-mile backups Monday morning. (WSP Trooper Johnson)
(WSP Trooper Johnson)
All lanes were closed in both directions of Highway 18, just west of the Raging River Bridge, because of a multi-vehicle crash Monday morning.
RELATED: What you need to know about May Day 2017 in Seattle
Trooper Rick Johnson said there were multiple injuries. Four tow trucks responded to the scene.
UPDATE: All lanes remain blocked in both directions on SR 18 just west of the Raging River.
EB backup ➡️ 5 miles
WB backup ➡️ 2 miles pic.twitter.com/faNRVWNwvV— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) May 1, 2017
KIRO Radio’s Chris Sullivan said the accident created a five-mile backup on EB 18 and on the entire way back side of Tiger Mountain, as well as at least a mile from the north side of I-90 toward Auburn.
Sullivan said the rest of the commutes haven’t been bad — thus far. May Day protests could ultimately change things as the day goes on.
Sullivan said he was asked all weekend if it’s smart to travel to downtown Seattle Monday. His advice: No.
“Get out, that’s my advice and If you are here for work, call the day in the afternoon and get out of here by 1,” Sullivan said. “Normally, if you’re going to be south of I-90 or north of about Mercer, you really can avoid a lot of this but if you’re in the downtown core, we’re monitoring about 12 separate protests and they all at some point usually gather in and take cover under the biggest one, which is the rally for immigration and worker’s rights, which is about 8,000 or 9,000 people.”
That march is peaceful. The ones you will see later social media start at about 6 p.m.
“We never know what that small group of people are going to do in the middle but when you get 8,000 to 10,000 people marching through downtown, it’s going to impact us big time from about 1 probably through about 7 o’clock tonight,” Sullivan said.
