A Metro bus driver has been placed on administrative leave after striking and killing a woman near Northgate Mall on Thursday. It is standard policy for drivers to be placed on administrative leave after a serious collision.
According to the Seattle Police Department’s drug recognition expert, the driver had no obvious signs of impairment. The 94-year-old woman died at the scene. In a Seattle Times story about the incident, the driver was described as distraught. Investigators are also trying to determine whether the woman was in the crosswalk. Metro hasn’t had bus-related fatality since October 2013.
The bus, an Orion model, was reportedly making a left turn. In a Crosscut story this September exploring bus-pedestrian collisions involving Metro Transit, Laura Kaufman reported that some bus drivers' union safety officials question the ability of drivers on Orion buses to see pedestrians. Orion buses were involved in seven of eight serious injury accidents where Metro buses struck pedestrians while making left turns. (For more on the Northgate accident, click here.)
