Update: 2-car crash at 40th and Alaska, no serious injuries

(photo added 5:44 pm, thanks to Dubster)
ORIGINAL 5:09 PM REPORT: On our way to check. Update: A car is on its side by the Bank of America. Alaska is blocked both ways. 2nd update: 2 cars are involved. At least one person is in a medic unit. Alaska is blocked between 41st and Fauntleroy.

(photo by Christopher Boffoli, same car after it was righted, added 5:56 pm)
5:34 PM UPDATE: The man driving one of the cars involved is unhurt – the woman driving the other car suffered only a minor arm injury, according to police. The wreckage is being cleared but there’s enough broken glass in the road that it may be blocked for a while. We have someone at the scene and will update when it reopens.

(added 6:06 pm — Christopher’s photo of the other car that was involved, whose driver wasn’t hurt at all, according to police
5:36 PM UPDATE: That was fast – Alaska is now reopened westbound.

5:46 PM UPDATE: And Alaska is now open in both directions. So far, no word on how exactly this crash happened, but we’ll be following up. (6:10 pm) Adding one more photo – thanks to Miss Courtney for this one, showing some context on where the crash happened:

WesCAddle June 23, 2009 (5:18 pm)

Komo calling it a 2 car crash. Helicopters are circling now.

MargL June 23, 2009 (5:19 pm)

Hoping it’s just a crash and nobody fell into The Pit!

robwestseattle June 23, 2009 (5:20 pm)

Car accident near the Band of America on Alaska. Tangled mess of white metal. Probably someone turning in/out 40th onto Alaska.

robwestseattle June 23, 2009 (5:23 pm)

er, “Bank” not “Band”

west seattle-ite June 23, 2009 (5:39 pm)

When we drove by there were numerous Medical units, and even a “heavy duty” fire truck.

WSeattleGSXR June 23, 2009 (5:41 pm)

Thank god it wasn’t worse than it was. Seems the consensus is that the man in the black newer Ford Focus was in and out of traffic and seemed to hit the Silver car in the Front Driverside Fender area. People once again in too much of a hurry and speeding through inner city streets. That never ends well. I’d say when will people learn, but we all know the answer to that…

Kara June 23, 2009 (5:43 pm)

They sure had a huge response for something so small…I live right next to it and I heard at least 8 sirens if not more…crazy. I guess its better to be safe then sorry.

JBL June 23, 2009 (5:46 pm)

When I heard the sirens and saw the chopper overhead, I went to my computer and checked the only place that could tell me what was going on…The West Seattle Blog.

Robert June 23, 2009 (5:53 pm)

Kara,

I thought the same thing for a small fire in North Admiral a few months ago but that is just how Seattle Fire responds – sure doesn’t hurt.

WSB June 23, 2009 (6:01 pm)

Mandatory response for “heavy rescue” – they might have had to cut somebody out of wreckage – see the story we covered night before last – same type of thing, and luckily that person is going to survive too. We were actually on the WS Bridge heading for a brief trip to Beacon Hill when we saw the heavy rescue fire department vehicle heading westbound and knew that meant only one thing … check 911 on the iphone … which luckily we can use to publish news on the fly too. Thanks to everybody who sent notes and also to photojournalist Christopher Boffoli for responding too – as well as to “Dubster” for sending early pix from the scene – crews worked so amazingly fast, the tipped car was righted before either we or Christopher got in position to get a photo, and neither of us was lagging. Glad nobody was badly hurt. As soon as we saw 40th/Alaska on the 911 log that was our first thought … “the pit?????” … yikes. — TR

Soundtrack of Your Life June 23, 2009 (6:06 pm)

Drove by this and thought about rubber-necking. Then the thought-bubble appeared: “This’ll be on WSB by the time I get home.” Sure enough, five blocks later… I must say, however, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t get a photo of the car’s interior from the passenger side. Losing your “umph” or guest photographer?

man June 23, 2009 (7:34 pm)

jeez louise! Is it just the amazing reporting of WSB bringing it to light or are there a lot of sensational crashes this week?!! Hope all are ok.

WSB June 23, 2009 (7:43 pm)

really only 2 major ones, this one and the one on Admiral the other night, and no major injuries in either one. Been a few weeks since the Porsche-in-water. And otherwise (knock wood) it’s been pretty quiet so far as breaking news goes, “no news is good news” … we have enough other things to write about in the slow times that we never sit around wishing for a ‘breaker’ … TR

Marie Whitehead June 23, 2009 (7:57 pm)

There was a man in a suit that helped jack the car up off of her arm. The police weren’t very nice to him but he did a good thing.

Mike June 24, 2009 (9:22 am)

“There was a man in a suit that helped jack the car up off of her arm. The police weren’t very nice to him but he did a good thing.”

That’s because he could have caused more damage if the car were to move again. Jacking a car up in an unstable position is incredibly unsafe. Even when you work under a car you don’t rely on the jack, you use jack stands or a professional car lift on solid flat concrete under the lift points of the vehicle.

There is a huge risk in what he did. If you are out in the middle of nowhere and need to extract somebody from a vehicle, I’d say you might only have that option, but aid response in city is a mere 5 minutes, sometimes less.

Kara June 24, 2009 (5:22 pm)

I was on the phone with my mom in Oregon and she was like what’s going on so I hopped on to the blog…you guys are amazing! I also checked Real Time 911.

WSB June 24, 2009 (5:50 pm)

We might have been a few minutes slower if we hadn’t happened to have actually seen the heavy-rescue unit, battalion chief, etc., on the bridge :) but probably not by much, thanks to the great folks who text, call, e-mail when they see/hear something happen … timely info on this one was really important given it happened in the middle of commute time! – TR

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