Webmaster
10-03-2007, 09:24 AM
By Seattle Times Eastside bureau
As the first fall storms rolled through the Puget Sound region, replacing warmth and sunshine from a week ago with wind and rain, the State Patrol noted one instant effect: People began driving into each other.
Collisions jumped 62 percent when the storms hit, calculated Trooper Jeff Merrill, patrol public-information officer.
From Sept. 22 through 25, Merrill found, troopers in King County responded to 171 collisions on state roadways.
That changed the next weekend. From Saturday to Tuesday, troopers went to 275 collisions, Merrill reported.
One collision took place Tuesday morning in Issaquah, where a trooper had stopped along the shoulder of westbound Interstate 90 at Highway 900 because of a three-car collision.
The trooper was outside of his car when a young Issaquah man went from northbound Highway 900 to head west on I-90. He was going too fast in the rain, Merrill said, and his vehicle slid across the roadway — rear-ending the trooper's car.
No one was injured. The driver was cited for going too fast for conditions.
"That's one car you don't want to hit," said Merrill.
from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2003921278_collision03e.html
As the first fall storms rolled through the Puget Sound region, replacing warmth and sunshine from a week ago with wind and rain, the State Patrol noted one instant effect: People began driving into each other.
Collisions jumped 62 percent when the storms hit, calculated Trooper Jeff Merrill, patrol public-information officer.
From Sept. 22 through 25, Merrill found, troopers in King County responded to 171 collisions on state roadways.
That changed the next weekend. From Saturday to Tuesday, troopers went to 275 collisions, Merrill reported.
One collision took place Tuesday morning in Issaquah, where a trooper had stopped along the shoulder of westbound Interstate 90 at Highway 900 because of a three-car collision.
The trooper was outside of his car when a young Issaquah man went from northbound Highway 900 to head west on I-90. He was going too fast in the rain, Merrill said, and his vehicle slid across the roadway — rear-ending the trooper's car.
No one was injured. The driver was cited for going too fast for conditions.
"That's one car you don't want to hit," said Merrill.
from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2003921278_collision03e.html