White Center Now: The blog about White Center

One of our cafe patrons was driving to the cafe when he saw an approaching car hit a child who was sumersaulted by the blow.  As the child was crawling away, her head bleeding, the driver, a young man kept repeating, “it’s ok” to his companion.  They got into the car and were about to drive away when our patron pulled his car in front of theirs and told them, “you aren’t going anywhere.”  A restaurant next to the scene emptied out and people surrounded the car while somebody called the police.  Aid units and police arrived.  No word on the condition of the child.

The Seattle Times is reporting that the road clearing during December’s snow storms was driven by political decisions rather than the clearing of critical arterials.

In previous storms, plow drivers had discretion over how best to clear their assigned routes, said plow driver Chris Stuker. City drivers would traverse main routes in tandem, allowing main roads to be cleared and plows to clear feeder streets as they were able to, Stuker and three other drivers said.

But that system was replaced by top-down decision-making that resulted in trucks being pulled from major streets for special assignments and to help less-experienced drivers, most of them working in the south end of the city, according to two drivers who asked to remain anonymous out of a concern for their jobs.

From the Seattle Department of Transportation:

SDOT’s contractor plans to lay a new asphalt surface on the southbound lanes of 14th Avenue South in the South Park neighborhood from Monday, March 9 to Friday, March 27, depending on weather conditions. During this work, the southbound lanes of 14th Avenue South between South Cloverdale Street and South Director Street will be closed with traffic detoured 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Detour signs will be posted prior to the start of construction. One lane will remain open for northbound traffic. The project is scheduled for completion this spring.