As I drove into Seattle on Tuesday I heard reports of at least a dozen crashes, apparently due to the ‘black ice’. One crash around Tukwila (well south of my destination) involved a fatality. Yesterday I heard a report of another fatal crash. This morning on the news there was a report of a fatal crash possibly involving alcohol.
It just struck me that three fatal crashes in four days is unusual. Is it?
Probably unusual in Seattle… over here it’d be a slow day.
It looks like the statewide average for motorist fatalities hovers at about 450 per year. Considering the percentage of the population that lives in the greater Seattle area, three fatal crashes in four days doesn’t seem too unusual.
Former resident checking in: Relatively unusual, but anytime there’s black ice around there, it happens. That shit is scary, and all hills and curves of the roads make crashes more likely.
Out of curiosity, I looked up some stats. Nothing here noting when ice was involved, but I do think it’s kind of interesting how consistent the number of fatal crashes has been over the last 15 years:
Year Total
1994 575
1995 576
1996 643
1997 587
1998 590
1999 574
2000 572
2001 568
2002 586
2003 539
2004 509
2005 580
2006 575
How many fatalities is that per capita?
How does it compare to the Greater Los Angeles area (approximately ten million people)?
Oops, I meant to include a link to where I found that. It’s for all of Washington State, not just Seattle.
Digging further, Seattle had just 49 fatal crashes in 2006, the most recent year available there.