A person driving a white pickup struck and seriously injured two people riding a Lime bike or scooter at Aurora and Roy early Monday. A man around 30 years old and a woman around 28 were transported to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition, King 5 reported.
The driver stopped, and images from the scene show the truck with what appears to me to be a Lime Glider sit-down scooter wedged underneath, though it is hard to say for certain which model of Lime it was. He was evaluated at the scene, showing no signed of impairment, Seattle Police said in a statement (see below). He was released from the scene.
The pair on the Lime were riding eastbound on Roy Street at 4:20 a.m. along with a third person on a separate Lime. The third person turned left onto the Aurora sidewalk, but the pair continued straight to try to cross the highway. There is a full concrete median barrier along the center line of Aurora at this point with no gaps, and there is also no shoulder near the center median. There is no other crossing point within view of Roy, and the only way to cross is to backtrack two blocks to Taylor Ave N then use the Mercer Street underpass. An SPD spokesperson told reporters, “From what I was told, they were unfamiliar with the area.”
Aurora has a dangerous faux-freeway design where the city street grid connects to the highway as though it is a regular street, but then a barrier blocks crossing and left turns for long stretches. There is no place to cross Aurora on a bike for the 1.3 miles between Mercer Street and the Aurora Bridge (the Galer Street Overpass requires stairs). This street design is awful for so many reasons and needs to change.
Lime does not support multiple people riding any of their devices at the same time, though you see it often on their stand-up and sit-down scooters (less so on the bikes since it is more difficult to do). The difference between a lime bike and a sit-down scooter is mostly semantics since they look and behave similarly, though there are few legal distinctions. For example, a bicycle can legally be ridden on a sidewalk but a scooter usually cannot. There’s no reason to think that the difference had any bearing on this situation, but I just wanted to point this out since it has been widely reported that they were on a bike.
Seattle police are investigating a collision early Monday morning in the Queen Anne neighborhood that left two people injured.
Shortly after 4:20 a.m., officers responded to reports of a crash at Aurora Avenue North and Roy Street involving a truck and two people riding on an electric bike.
Officers and Seattle Fire Department medics arrived and found a white Chevrolet truck driven by a 69-year-old man with a bike wedged underneath. Two adults, a man and woman were on the bike when they were struck.
Aid was provided at the scene, and the two cyclists were transported to Harborview Medical Center both in critical condition.
Patrol officers cordoned off the area, and detectives with the Traffic Collision Investigation Squad (TCIS) responded to process the scene.
The investigation revealed the two cyclists were on one bike traveling eastbound on Roy Street and crossed into southbound traffic of Aurora Avenue North before being struck.
The driver of the truck was evaluated at the scene and showed no signs of impairment.
The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with additional information is asked to contact TCIS at (206) 684-8923.
Incident: 26-107599/West Precinct/Q3