The Northeast 45th Street viaduct renovation has taken its first hit: a jackknifed 18-wheel rig just two blocks north of the bridge. Tuesday afternoon, an American West Worldwide Express truck got tangled up with a car while the driver tried to navigate the streets north of the bridge, which are especially narrow due to the bridge closure.
Photos by Sang Cho, The Daily.
The driver, Daniel Cabez, was trying to deliver a load of furniture to Miller-Pollard in University Village when he became lost after learning that the Northeast 45th Street bridge was under repair. Heading east on NE 47th Street, and knowing that he could not turn right onto 21st Avenue Northeast, Cabez tried to take a left, and the back end of the truck swung out too far.
Cabez had a feeling, though, that he was in trouble.
“I was trying to make it, because this [street] is too short, too,” Cabez said, adding that driving in Washington with a large truck is difficult because of the hills and narrow streets.
He ended up lodging the back of his truck into the hood of a gray Mercury Sable, whose owner was not immediately available.
The crash was especially unfortunate for Cabez, since he had traveled all the way from his native Los Angeles and was just a couple of blocks away from reaching the destination. Cabez, who was traveling with his son and small dog in the cab of the truck, said he usually drives a 48-foot rig.
Cabez was ticketed by one of the two officers who responded to the scene. One officer said that although he doesn’t see accidents on these particular streets often, the police respond to “semis stuck on Ravenna (Boulevard) all the time.”
By 4:45 p.m., the rig was in the process of being extricated and should be removed by this evening.
This story was written by William Dow, new site editor of UDistrictDaily and reporter for The Daily.
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16 reader comments so far ↓
1 Darren // Jul 27, 2010 at 9:37 pm
You mean NE 47th Street, not 47th Avenue Northeast.
Are all the detour signs not enough for people to see the right and wrong ways to get around the closed viaduct? I guess not…!
2 Doug Alder // Jul 27, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Thanks Darren,
Changed the copy to read NE 47th St.
3 moogie // Jul 27, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Picture #2, oh, that’ll buff right out!
Also, “semis stuck on Ravenna (Boulevard) all the time”? Maybe time for some signage to address that issue, huh?
4 UD // Jul 27, 2010 at 11:41 pm
That truck looks AWFULLY out of place north of campus, driver should have seen this oops coming.
Agree about the signage for Ravenna Blvd.
5 Allie // Jul 28, 2010 at 10:12 am
How can you be lodged “between a car”?
6 Sean P. // Jul 28, 2010 at 10:58 am
Surely you guys are joking – Ravenna Blvd already has warning signs for trucks between 15th Ave and 20th Ave. There’s also a sign on 55th telling trucks to use 22nd Ave to get to 45th, although that’s currently covered up.
(I’ve never seen a stuck semi on Ravenna, but I did once have to convince a Shuttle Express driver that it would be a very bad idea to drive a 12-passenger van down 47th between 21st and 22nd. That would not have been pretty.)
7 UD // Jul 28, 2010 at 11:41 am
I think the culprit about semi trucks is GPS. Talk about leading you into trouble…
8 oops // Jul 28, 2010 at 12:32 pm
UD, you might have a point there … GPS can’t know the geometry of your vehicle and its proposed route!
9 alexjonlin // Jul 28, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Several years ago, buses used to get stuck sometimes when the drivers were new and turned left from 65th onto Ravenna Ave instead of Ravenna Blvd. They then got stuck trying to get around the traffic circle at 63rd & Ravenna. I remember this happening at least two or three times, but I don’t think it’s happened in years.
10 velvetsmoke // Jul 28, 2010 at 3:29 pm
I remember a semi took Ravenna Blvd up from 25th Ave NE westbound. He made it all the way up to 20th, when he took a left and brought down a 50ft Horse Chestnut tree…..
11 UD // Jul 28, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I’ve seen lost looking people on campus glaring at either their GPS or a printed Google map and stuck in the rabbit warrant of fire lanes on the UW campus. Someone will hammer a career out of getting Google and others to deal more accurately with access restrictions on college campuses.
12 UD // Jul 28, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Sorry, that should probably have been rabbit warren?
13 Will // Jul 28, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Sean P., 47th between 21st and 22nd isn’t as bad as you say. I lived on 22nd there for three years and I remember seeing several good-sized straight trucks navigate it just fine, including one that seemed to use it regularly. A Shuttle Express van should have been no problem, unless there were people parked really crazily (which does happen, I know).
On the other hand, there are limits. I saw a Suburban pulling a boat trailer get stuck there once for a good couple hours. And there’s certainly no way this semi would have made it.
As for the article itself, I want to point out that the truck is not “jackknifed”. Jackknifing usually happens when the truck slams on its brakes and the tractor starts to skid while the trailer keeps going, spinning the tractor around so that it’s facing sideways/backwards relative to the trailer. This truck simply ran into a parked car while going around a corner.
14 Gary Raymond // Jul 28, 2010 at 4:58 pm
We need a three way stop at NE 50th street and 21st Ave NE and a 4 way stop at NE 54 street and 21st Ave NE, but city says, “No”. Large numbers of drivers are now using 21st Ave NE as an alternative to the “supposed detours” and many of them are speeding. It’s become hazardous to cross the street to get to and from your zone 6 parked car. I almost got smacked yesterday by a speeding car and have narrowly avoided accidents at these two intersections with speeding drivers since the construction started. But city says, “No can do.” Hope and pray it doesn’t take a dead child to change city’s unwillingness to rectify this situation.
15 UD // Jul 28, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Gary Raymond, I agree about the bad drivers. Would be some good spots there for ticketing and putting a little sting in it for such behavior. At least this is supposed to be done by mid September and isn’t permanent. I have hoped UWPD is catching bad drivers ignoring the No Thru Traffic signs on campus and going 35 in a 20 zone they aren’t even supposed to be cutting through on in the first place.
16 flyboy541 // Jul 29, 2010 at 8:31 am
Let me recap this. City blocks street, truck gets lost and hits car. Government wins lottery. Why do we allow our government to treat us as children. ” Now little Billy you didn’t eat all your peas, you have to pay me money”. Things happen in life, why pay our money to our government.