UPDATE: Eastbound bridge reopens after crash; driver arrested

(Photo courtesy Raquel – substituted for earlier traffic-camera image)
4:17 PM: Big emergency response on the eastbound West Seattle Bridge by 4th Avenue South – closing all but the exit lane at that spot. More to come.

4:22 PM: Police are going to try to divert people off at 1st Avenue South but we’ve just heard from Erica, who passed the crash going the other way, and says it looks like multiple vehicles involved as well as one car that’s on its side, and there’s already an eastbound backup. (Here’s an earlier view, tweeted by SDOT:)

4:26 PM: Emergency vehicles are also in one westbound lane parallel with 4th, so if you’re planning on getting to the westbound bridge from I-5 or Beacon Hill, this could be a problem.

(Photo courtesy Brian Baum)
4:44 PM: That westbound lane is clear, but the eastbound lanes remain blocked at 4th, with everybody forced to get off the bridge at 1st Avenue South.

4:51 PM: Per scanner, police are hoping to have one lane – likely the outside lane – open shortly. But even with most of the commute going the other way, that still will mean big backups.

4:57 PM: And here it is, one lane open:

UPDATE: One EB lane has been reopened on W Seattle Bridge at 4th Ave S. pic.twitter.com/C4qiTJyD65

— seattledot (@seattledot) June 16, 2015

Don’t take the low bridge as a backup any time soon – also via scanner, it’s going to swing open soon for “a large boat” to get through.

5:27 PM: The bridge is fully open again, after about an hour and 10 minutes.

WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: SPD confirms something we thought we had heard on the scanner – the 32-year-old driver had at least one warrant out for his arrest. They also confirm an “active DUI investigation” in the case. We are also asking SFD for any final information about injuries and will add whatever we learn there.

jlynneg June 16, 2015 (4:22 pm)

there are several cars involved and pedestrians are standing on the highway. I just drove by the accident and there was two fire trucks on the way to the scene. Traffic is backing up really quick!!!

Stuart June 16, 2015 (4:32 pm)

All eastbound lanes blocked @ 1st-ave exit . East bound traffic at a standstill all the way to delridge on ramp

sam-c June 16, 2015 (4:32 pm)

DD June 16, 2015 (4:37 pm)

Jesus

Nieghbor June 16, 2015 (4:54 pm)

i have never seen so many aid vehicles. This is going to be a very long effort.
Stay off the bridge.

It was pretty telling how multiple aid cars couldn’t get through. Largest neighborhood in Seattle and two lanes with no where to go. Makes me love the people who penned that letter last week to the transportation board. Its dangerous to leave WS with such poor infrastructure.

T June 16, 2015 (4:56 pm)

Car flipped on side but looks like cars are slowly starting to pass.

Lisette June 16, 2015 (4:57 pm)

Westbound was really backed up too. I just hope everyone walks away from this accident OK.

Raquel June 16, 2015 (4:58 pm)

I have 3 photos taken at 4:37. How do I post?

WSB June 16, 2015 (5:00 pm)

Raquel, you can e-mail to us – editor@wsb.blackfin.biz – thank you.

DD June 16, 2015 (5:01 pm)

Wonder how it happened?

cjboffoli June 16, 2015 (5:50 pm)

Hmm. If SDOT has high-resolution cameras on the West Seattle Bridge I wonder why it only provides public access to the low-res cameras.

WSB June 16, 2015 (5:53 pm)

TV stations have access to more views than you see on the Web, too, or at least that’s the way it was when I left the industry 7 1/2 years ago to do this … But you can access the video version of the cameras via the Travelers map, which is clunky to navigate (and I’ve shared my opinion on that with SDOT, fwiw) … those cameras aren’t embeddable, while the low-res still ones are (as long as you right-click to grab the updated-image URL), so I always use the latter. – TR

justadumbguy June 16, 2015 (6:19 pm)

Holy cow TR thanks for that tip about the Hi-Res Cameras! What a world of difference. There is a new bookmark for sure. Thanks again.

heyalki June 16, 2015 (6:35 pm)

Does anyone care to mention how the crash victims are doing? ? ? Seems like the only thing people care about is how inconvenient this was.

Hawkfam June 16, 2015 (6:49 pm)

So, what happened?

alki resident June 16, 2015 (6:49 pm)

My friend watched the car flip right in front of him. He ran out to help and found a screaming baby. The dad was driving and wreaked of booze. Hopefully baby is ok and dad gets locked up. This could’ve ended way worse.

WSB June 16, 2015 (7:11 pm)

Hey and Hawk, we don’t have any other information. If it was on a surface street, we’d have been able to go to the scene and ask officers/firefighters. It wasn’t, so we couldn’t. SPD hasn’t written it up for the blotter, nor has SFD posted any information about who if anyone was transported. All we can say for sure is that there were no major injuries because if there were, TCIS would have been called out, and it wasn’t. I heard an initial call dismissing the medic unit because they only needed aid-level (low level) medical care. I was going to try asking SPD at the Crime Prevention Council meeting, but that’s been called off so I can’t even do that. Hope to be able to ask SPD/SFD tomorrow – TR

Drove by June 16, 2015 (7:47 pm)

I drove by the accident before the emergency response got there. No one was in the overturned car and a bunch of folks were standing by the median, so one can assume that everyone walked away relatively unharmed.

Eric1 June 16, 2015 (9:57 pm)

Wow. You can’t get much lower in life if the guy was driving drunk with kids in the car.
.
This is one time I hope that he has several previous DUI’s so he doesn’t just get his wrist slapped. Perhaps the judge has a really heavy book that they can throw at this guy.

WSB June 17, 2015 (8:48 am)

Anybody checking back today (Wed): I have an inquiry officially out with SPD, in hopes of finding out if a citation or ticket or arrest ensued, and one with SFD regarding injuries. (9:22 am update) Info added to story.