Curley: It could have been any of us on the Aurora Bridge

It’s tough to relate to an event where more than 700 people are killed, when it happens in Saudi Arabia. While clearly devastating, the personal connection for some just isn’t there.

But that’s exactly what happened during a ritual of the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca Thursday morning, the same day when four people were killed on the Aurora Bridge in Seattle.

The deaths on the bridge hit closer to home, KIRO Radio’s John Curley explained. Because that is Seattle’s bridge.

“Those deaths … they seem to have a higher value than a bunch of people you can’t even find on a map where they were killed,” Curley said. Though the people’s lives are no less important in Saudi Arabia, there’s more of a connection with those on the bridge. “It’s the relatability. I could have been on the bridge. I could have been riding on the Duck.”

Four people were killed and more than 40 treated for various injuries, when a charter bus was struck by a Ride the Ducks vehicle. The steel vehicle slammed into the side of the bus on the Aurora Bridge Thursday morning, tearing it open. People on both the vehicle and bus were injured. All four who died were on the bus.

One of the people on the Duck vehicle described the scene just after the crash to The Seattle Times. It was the personal account that was heart-wrenching for Curley.

“I stood up and looked forward and I saw that beautiful girl that was with her mom, looking over the edge of the Duck and crying. I … saw her mom laying in a puddle of blood on the road.”

Seattle hasn’t always been such a tourist destination, historian Feliks Banel told Curley. Now that it is, there are people from all over the world enjoying what it has to offer. The people, both on the bus and on the Duck, were just enjoying a September afternoon in the Emerald City.

“In an instant, it changes,” he added.