Two readers sent us information plus a photo from a car accident Sunday that sent a car careening into Thornton Creek from Fifth Avenue Northeast, near Northgate Mall.
The above photo is from reader James Johnson, and Frank Backus provided this update not only of the accident, but also an update of Thornton Creek activities:
A car careened off 5th Ave NE (midafternoon Sunday), knocking down about 40 feet of chain-link fence just south of the bus stop and north of 103rd Street, rolling over and landing on its top in the middle of the stream and knocking down at least one of the big rocks along the edge of the sidewalk. The driver crawled out the window. He was seen by the police and was taken away in an ambulance with a neck brace on.
When we went back over at 6 p.m., the car had been pulled out and was being hauled away; and Parks was sweeping up the sidewalk. There was an oil-slick remaining on the water. I then went to look for beaver in the pond. I watched from 6:15 to 7:15 and saw no sign of beavers. The breach in the dam looked very similar to what I had seen on Friday. There were crows, wood-ducks, Mallards, a great blue heron that flew in, red-breasted nuthatch, and song sparrows. I saw a couple of fish jump.
When I went back to the accident scene, Parks was putting up an orange plastic net fencing to replace the chain-link. Also I saw that the grafitti on the PacMed building and on the apartment fencing on the north side of 105th had been painted out by Joseph Zohn today (I had seen it there on Friday, and Mary Lee had seen him painting over it today).
With modern ABS brakes, strong black skid marks are rare unless the vehicle slides sideways. There are some faint signs on dry pavement, but they are difficult to detect.
We saw them towing the car yesterday, then went by again when they were putting up the netting. What stood out was a complete absence of skid marks, as if the car hadn’t even attempted to brake. Very strange.