Reader reports: Two tales of trouble on West Seattle streets

Two reader reports with words of warning – one a scare in Alki traffic this afternoon, one a sort of road-rage incident along California SW between Morgan and Alaska Junctions earlier in the week – read on:

From S:

We were just driving south on Harbor Avenue south – end of Alki before bend to go around toward Salty’s at around 2:30. Our windows were open and all of a sudden we heard a noise- a snap sound – and our car swerved violently. My husband was yelling saying ‘something just hit me!’ He said he felt like he got shot. His neck is red and swollen. There is nothing in our car that was ‘sent’ over. But clearly someone from an oncoming car (heading toward Alki) shot us with something – either with an air gun (?) or a rubberband gun. We were travelling in a long line of cars so only going about 20 mph. Because of his pain and the car swerve, we were trying to figure out what happened and didn’t see anyone or their car. We just hope you can warn others there are some idiots out there today. We could have easily run into oncoming traffic. We had our 3 year old in the car too.

On another part of the peninsula, N reported this Thursday morning incident:

9:50 (Thursday) morning driving to work on Calif Ave going north. I stopped at Juneau crosswalk for a pedestrian, the van in the left turn lane stopped as well for her.then the black Chevrolet pick up came up behind me slowed a bit then sped around me on the right side. Thank god the pedestrian in the crosswalk had not advanced that far.he would have killed her! As I approached the truck continuing on my way to work tried to call 911(but my phone was dead) so I wrote down the license plate while we were both stopped at the Edmunds stoplight. He apparently saw this and began screaming I better not call or he was going to ‘ f*** you up, b**ch’ and overt arm swinging while flipping me off.

Going thru the light he pulled to the left lane and continued to swear and threaten me while driving beside me (at this point I can’t go left and he blocked my right), at the stop light on alaska.I did not make eye contact. And locked my doors. I tried to stay behind him but he stayed to my right until the next stoplight then sped ahead of me. He turned right on Dakota. It was a young white man and a male passenger. An older black Chevrolet pickup, with the driver back tail light busted and taped. i gave the license number to police. At the time they had some kind of cabinet in the back of the truck. VERY aggressive, please avoid! Pedestrians please be aware!

yep July 2, 2011 (3:28 pm)

good job on getting the plate!!

LarryErick July 2, 2011 (3:49 pm)

Is “S” absolutely sure her husband wasn’t stung by a wasp? Didn’t see anyone or their car, right? It could have gotten into the car without notice.

M July 2, 2011 (4:03 pm)

Well I witnessed another rage incident and had to call the police, a deranged man on California near Fauntleroy was smashing out another person’s windsheild! I called 911 as he took off. Sunny day crazies???

Linda July 2, 2011 (4:04 pm)

I think the person in N’s report is someone I see quite often. Beater black pickup with taped up tail light. Young trashy looking guy driving and, every time I’ve seen him, he has his equally trashy looking girlfriend practically sitting in his lap in the truck. I usually see them pulling in/out of the 7-11 at California/Charlestown or going east on Andover, and always driving like a bat-outta-hell. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of scuzzy tweakers in West Seattle these days. Glad N got his plates and hope the police get him off the roads.

NFiorentini July 2, 2011 (4:25 pm)

When one witnesses aggressive (or whatever the word is to describe the driver of the truck in the second story), are we supposed to call 911 (with a hands-free device/speaker phone, of course)? Or perhaps another number? And are there certain levels of offenses that should be called in?

(Assuming that the police have the time, manpower, and inclination to handle these things.)

I ask because I think we could clean up the streets if we could call in these nutty drivers and the police would pull them over to talk to them, or ticket and/or arrest them if they were also witnesses to unsafe and illegal driving. Even if the officer was not a witness to anything illegal, perhaps there would be a “scared straight” effect that would make these drivers more conscientious.

miws July 2, 2011 (4:41 pm)

NFiorentini, TR will correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe in a case where road rage is underway, the Police would like you to call 911 immediately, hands free or not.

Of course, you’d want to do it in the safest manner possible, pulling over if you can, so long as you are not blocking traffic, or creating some other hazard.

Mike

KBear July 2, 2011 (4:55 pm)

YES, if you see something happening, call 911! That’s what it’s for! That is the only way they can get police officers there to check it out. And you don’t need a hands-free device to call 911. Emergency calls are exempted by law.

NFiorentini July 2, 2011 (5:57 pm)

I guess I’m trying to get some specific criteria for calling 911.
EX: If I’m a decent judge of speed and I see someone that I believe to be doing over 70mph on the West Seattle bridge or over 50mph (speed limit: 30) on Admiral Way, should I call?
(I’m not talking about five or ten over the speed limit here. That seems overboard).

And while I’m thinking about it, what about someone who bypasses the line going onto the West Seattle Bridge by taking the onramp’s bus lane?

Another EX: Someone flies through a crosswalk on Alki with pedestrians in the crosswalk. There’s about five (or more) feet between them and the passing vehicle. Does this rise to the level of warranting a call to 911?

from 's' July 2, 2011 (8:09 pm)

we didn’t call 911 because we didn’t see the car or anything else (if it was a car). When you call 911 you have to have a description for the officers – we had nothing and it would have wasted their time. It definitely wasn’t a wasp though it was a ‘slap’ sound and had an impact.

Linda July 2, 2011 (8:20 pm)

NFiorentini – re: “someone who bypasses the line going onto the West Seattle Bridge by taking the onramp’s bus lane”. I cross the bridge every weekday morning and for at least the last week SPD has had several cars and 4-5 officers pulling people over and ticketing them for this very thing. It’s interesting that it’s typically a line up of BMWs and Mercedes with shocked-looking drivers inside (you get to stare at them for a while as you inch along in the non-bus lane). While I find the “cheaters” irritating and love to see them get ticketed, I’ve never seen one actually putting the safety of others at risk as the road ragers do, although I would think they are much more difficult to catch unless the police can act on a tip and a tag number.

miws July 2, 2011 (8:23 pm)

NFiorentini, I think you have a pretty good handle on when to call 911. IMHO, the scenarios you cite would warrant it.

Keep in mind though, you may be told that the alleged violator cannot be cited without an Officer witnessing the violation.

However, it couldn’t hurt, there just may be Police presence on Alki, and perhaps they might witness the person doing the same thing at another crosswalk nearby, or in the speeding across the bridge scenario, perhaps there would be an Officer nearby that might witness the driver continuing to speed.

I like that you are curious and concerned about this, as one of my pet peeves is useless 911 calls, such as; “Can you tell me what the weather is going to be like tomorrow?“, or the ones that call 911 because McDonalds screwed up their order.

Mike

Scooterista July 2, 2011 (8:47 pm)

Hmm. I was driving towards the Bridge on Alaska Friday about 10 am when something hit the edge of my partially rolled down window with some force, careened off to hit my forearm, and went under the seat. The thing felt kind of solid and inert, not like an insect, and it made a definate collision ping noise when it hit the window. At the time, I was very puzzled, but there was no mark on my arm and since I was driving and the light was green, I just carried on. Now I’m wondering and I think I’ll go look under the front seat tomorrow and see what I find.

Jasperblu July 2, 2011 (9:23 pm)

Do let us know what you find @Scooterista!

I. Ponder July 2, 2011 (9:40 pm)

Someone was driving their car in the bike/pedestrian lane down on Alki last Sunday. You really can’t blame them since traffic on the street is so bad and they’re no doubt important people. When I saw them the police were already there. I took a photo which you can see here:
http://tubulocity.com/?p=5386

kc July 2, 2011 (11:22 pm)

Linda, That is a very ignorant comment…to say that the brand of car that one drives represents the type of people that cut in on the bus lane. I drive a nice car and always head to the slower, but correct lane and always thought that the scumbags who were too important to wait their turn in the slow lane drove clunkers most of the time.

Casey July 2, 2011 (11:25 pm)

I think also (and someone correct me if I’m wrong) even if the police cannot do anything about the specific incident called about, if there are multiple calls for that area, they will patrol it more? So perhaps if everyone called about “little” things it’ll at least get more officers in the area and possibly lower crime activity.

JN July 2, 2011 (11:52 pm)

@ I. Ponder, are you kidding me with that!??! And motorists complain about having to slightly move to the left a few feet to pass a cyclist. Jeez.

NFiorentini July 3, 2011 (9:55 am)

I wanted to say thank you for answering my questions and to also thank the folks who do this site.

WSB July 3, 2011 (11:25 am)

NF – thanks for the thanks – WSB and its “readers” (we prefer “collaborators”) have been honored nationally and regionally for exactly this. Hope you have safe travels and do not have to call 911, though! – Tracy (editor/co-publisher)

Neighbor July 3, 2011 (12:17 pm)

A couple of months ago a male and female in a pale gold Hummer followed me around for a couple of miles in WS. They were trying to scare and harass me. I finally pulled into the Junction and went into the bank to call the police. The officer scolded me for not carrying my cell so that I could have called 911 right away. He was right, this couple should have been pulled over and either arrested or fined, without calling I made SDP’s help impossible. They want us to call. People that are unstable shouldn’t be behind the wheel of heavy machinery.

DC July 3, 2011 (3:36 pm)

While there are certainly occasional cases of actual unprovoked road rage attacks, most of the incidents we read and hear about are instigated by sanctimonious people trying to chide other drivers for what they perceive to be bad behavior.
.
It really takes two to tango and I’m dubious when people say they had no choice but to continue driving near the road raging vehicle. Slowing down or pulling into a parking lot will end almost any road rage altercation as soon as it begins.
.
There is a difference between getting a plate number to call the police and getting a plate number in a flamboyant and dramatic way because you want to know you are reporting them. People in this area seem to be pretty petty when it comes to this sort of thing and the little “get the last word” style of game is what causes a lot of this stuff.
.
So just stop. Stop glaring at people, stop shaking your head reproachfully, stop giving them the finger, stop vehemently writing down numbers or pretending to call the police. If you have an issue, act like nothing happened, pull over in a safe spot and call the police. It’s as simple as that.

datamuse July 3, 2011 (6:48 pm)

Sanctimonious, eh?

Genesee Hill July 3, 2011 (6:58 pm)

Good advice, DC. Sometimes easier said, than done. But good advice.

LivesinWS July 4, 2011 (10:58 am)

DC, “slowing down” to get rid of road rage drivers? I did that on 99 N and the creep just slowed down and stayed right on the tail of my car. I ended up doing about 15 mph …early morning in summer so light out already and hardly any other cars. He finally roared off an exit with a coule feet to spare.

Fred July 7, 2011 (11:02 am)

NFiorentini ,

Absolutely No
No
No ( “flies through” ? it seems your hurdle would be pretty low)

regardless of what Mike might thinks, your main job driving is first and formost to focus on your own driving – “defensive driving”.

DC makes very good comments. If anyone would disagree, they should just become a police officers – might even doa good job.

Fred July 7, 2011 (11:08 am)

DC, excelent post – I was thinking the same things.

If someone needs to ask if a situation warrants calling 911 it usually means “No”.

“N” simply needed to stop and just write down the license plate and report it. Instead, she provoked a situation she knew was heated, placing herself and innocent bystanders in danger.

These situations are emotional, but they aren’t hard to understand – “defensive driving”.

WSB July 7, 2011 (11:18 am)

Actually, Seattle Police say that if you think a situation might warrant calling 911, they would rather you DO call 911. The dispatchers can route you elsewhere if they don’t believe it’s warranted. This has been reiterated at Crime Prevention Council and other meetings we’ve covered, as well as in story-related conversations, over and over again – TR