Stop the legal blame game, and fix Seattle’s deadly Aurora Bridge

A Ride the Ducks vehicle collided with a charter bus on Seattle’s Aurora Bridge, killing five students and injuring dozens of others. (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times, 2015)

SEATTLE TIMES

By Mark Higgins
June 14, 2018
mhiggins@seattletimes.com
Twitter @markhiggins

Seattle and Washington state are fighting each other in court in an attempt to limit their respective liability for their years of dithering over who should fix the safety of the Aurora Bridge.

Remember the horrific crash on the Aurora Bridge? The one where the Ride the Ducks amphibious truck carrying tourists careened across the bridge and smashed into a charter bus? The collision killed five college students and injured some 70 others.

It’s hard to forget the loss of innocent life, or the brutal maiming caused by such a gruesome accident. And yet today, almost three years later, little has changed. 

In fact, on June 1, near the area of the Duck-boat accident, five drivers crashed, sending two cars across the centerline. All survived, even though firefighters cut one man from the mangled wreckage.

The evening rush hour that day suddenly became an hourslong marathon. Buses were detoured and riders, including me, got out to walk home, rent a bike or find another way out.