Fog, crash combine to make Seattle’s morning commute a doozy
Nov 28, 2023, 8:46 AM | Updated: 3:02 pm
Commute times were unprecedented Tuesday morning. (WSDOT)
(WSDOT)
Take a big crash, mix in some fog and frozen roads and you get one of the worst morning commutes in recent memory.
A collision on northbound Interstate 5 in Kent messed things up in a big way. At one point there was an 11-mile backup stretching to Fife.
The accident blocked the two left lanes at State Route 516 (Kent-Des Moines Road), according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
“This was by far the worst northbound commute out of Pierce County in years,” said KIRO Newsradio senior traffic reporter Chris “Sully” Sullivan. “Every northbound route was impacted.”
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At one point, commutes from Tacoma to Seattle were 2 hours and 40 minutes.
It all started around 4 a.m. when the Washington Department of Transportation first posted of the 516 crash.
✅CLEAR: I-5 at SR 516 in #Kent has now cleared to the side.
Backups from the collision mixed with regular morning traffic still stands at about 10 miles. https://t.co/Xukxt9vUSR pic.twitter.com/NsWIDiWzoS
— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) November 28, 2023
Authorities asked people to avoid the area, but there were only so many options.
Even by mid-morning, after much of the fog and the crash had cleared, commutes were often 30 minutes above normal.
