Light Rail Trail Collides With Car In Seattle KIROtv.com SEATTLE -- A Sound Transit light-rail train and a vehicle collided Monday afternoon in Seattle. The car was T-boned in the intersection of Martin Luther ... and more »

The Seattle P-I (click here), The Seattle Times (click here) and KING 5 report (click here) that a woman pedestrian was hit by a Sound Transit train on MLK Way. From the Times:

“A woman sustained facial injuries Friday afternoon when she ran into the side of a light rail train in testing service on tracks along Martin Luther King Jr. Way South at South Othello Street in South Seattle.

Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said the woman, on foot, was running in a crosswalk at the intersection when she ran into the side of the moving northbound train, which had a green light at the intersection, about 4:18 p.m.”

So far, during testing, Sound Transit has had a :

1. Train vs. car-turning-left accident, and a

2. Train vs. pedestrian accident.

KING 5 interviewed kids on the street and their video showed one young man crossing the tracks without watching where the train was.

What will happen when regular operation begins?

Unfortunately, this will likely not be the end of the accidents. Read our previous posts on this safety issue  HERE and   HERE.

A 60-year-old woman suffered minor injuries yesterday when she was struck by a light rail train shortly after 4pm on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Othello Street. It was a little more than a week after the first accident involving a light rail train, in which a driver heading northbound on Martin Luther [...]

Woman sustains injury in light rail accident Seattle Times, United States Sound Transit's Link light rail trains are in testing in preparation for the start of public service in July. Last week, A light rail train and a car collided shortly after 5 pm Wednesday at Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Dawson Street. ...

Light rail train hits pedestrian KING5.com, WA After that incident, Sound Transit issued a warning to the public that light rail testing is expanding. Drivers and pedestrians in the Rainier Valley are warned to watch out for new signals and signage. Light rail will open to the public for free rides ...

Woman struck by light rail in South Seattle Seattle Post Intelligencer A 60-year-old woman was injured Friday when she was struck by a Sound Transit light rail train on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and Othello Street. The Seattle Fire Department reports that the woman suffered minor injuries. ...

Light rail collision raises safety questions KOMO News, WA Light rail from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport is a few months away, but already there's been a collision between a car and a Sound Transit train. The train collided with the car Wednesday during rush hour at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and South ...

We posted the other day (click here) about this disturbing development coming from Seattle Mayor (& Sound Transit Chair) Greg Nickels.

What doesn’t Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council understand? According to the Seattle Times,

“The state’s Open Public Meetings Act requires that meetings of public governing bodies be open. The law applies to their votes — but also discussions and deliberations leading up to votes.”

According to Times reporter Emily Heffter:

“A Seattle Times reporter was denied entrance to a budget briefing on Thursday afternoon. Tom Von Bronkhorst, a legislative aide to Councilmember Jean Godden, physically dragged the reporter away from it by the strap of her bag.

Does that sound like open government & transparency to you?

“Godden has said the mayor requested the meetings, and the council agreed to include no more than four council members at a time to avoid having a quorum, or a majority of the nine-member board. A meeting of a quorum must be public under the open-meeting law.

“That may comply with the letter of the law, but it sure doesn’t meet the spirit of the act,” said Tim Ford, the open-government ombudsman at the state Attorney General’s Office. “It sure looks like they’re trying to avoid the letter of the law, and that’s disturbing.”

“Michael Reitz, an attorney for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, said discussions leading up to a vote should be public under the open-meetings act. Council members could be personally liable if they break the law, he said.

“It’s not just the vote that has to be public, it’s all the debate and discussion around it,” he said.

“The public deserves to know everything that goes on in the discussion and the debates that are surrounding the budget items … They’re obviously trying to get consensus about some of the more controversial items before they go into a public forum.”

We don’t need any more secrecy in government. Here is the law, from the Seattle Times (click here):

Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act

THE ACT (RCW 42.30), which became law in 1971, states: “All meetings of the governing body of a public agency shall be open and public and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the governing body of a public agency.”It demands deliberations of a public board or agency “be conducted openly,” including “deliberations, discussions, considerations, reviews (and) evaluations … “

The act states “all public commissions, boards, councils, committees, subcommittees, departments, divisions, offices, and all other public agencies of this state … exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent … that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them.“

In an article in the Seattle Times, Reporter Emily Heffter mentions that :

“The Seattle City Council wants to discuss midyear cuts to the city general fund in a series of closed-door meetings with the mayor’s staff, budget committee chairwoman Jean Godden said. The private meetings raise a question about whether the council would be skirting the state’s Open Public Meetings Act.”

…”Alex Fryer, a spokesman for (Seattle Mayor Greg) Nickels, said the smaller meetings would allow decision-makers to “float an idea” and speak more openly than they could in public meetings, he said. “You want to do that in a more private fashion.”

Shouldn’t public officials have the backbone to ask questions and speak their minds regarding issues in a transparent, open fashion?

Shouldn’t their constitents be allowed to know what leads these folks to make decisions and know their stance so that they can vote accordingly at the next election?

What would our state, local & agency governments be like if their Boards could all meet in small groups to float ideas & form their opinions outside of the public eye?

Greg Nickels is also the Sound Transit Chair. Would the public be OK with Sound Transit, WSDOT, &/or other state or regional agencies dividing their Board members into small groups to skirt open meetings laws?

One has to wonder about the reason for their recent “Sound Transit Board retreat“, and what unnecessary amount of money that cost the taxpayers…

Yesterday, we wrote about the list of proposed taxes that cities, counties and agencies are proposing for 2008 (CLICK HERE). The concern is that the cumulative cost of the proposed transportation taxes, parks taxes, and other miscellaneous proposals, especially in this economic climate, will not only hurt families, but will be too costly for many Seattle-area families to stay in their homes.

Today, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has concerns about too many tax proposals on the ballot simultaneously:

“I am not supporting it, I am going to vote against it,” Nickels told KIRO radio personality Dave Ross on Tuesday, adding the city’s parks are considered the fourth best in the nation.

“I thought it would be good for us, rather than see property taxes go up, to actually see them decline because of levies leaving the ballot. With this economy, you’ve got to be careful,” Nickels said.

Later in the article, the P-I identifies another tax proposal coming next year:

….”Next year, voters will likely be asked to support the fourth renewal of the affordable housing levy. Nickels said the parks matter could wait until 2010.”

Here are a few of the comments from the article:

“Posted by Soccer.Guy at 10/23/08 7:45 a.m.Parks are basic infrastructure that should be funded out of the general fund, not by special levy. I already voted – “NO” on this.

Posted by DolphinGirl at 10/23/08 7:03 a.m. Did I hear him say something about how nice it would be to see our taxes GO DOWN for a change instead of GO UP if we didn’t vote in any new levies? That would truly be a miracle! Vote NO on all levies. Let’s learn to live within our civic means for a change.

Posted by greymatter at 10/23/08 8:06 a.m. Transit is about the region. The market is about the center of the city. The parks levy is about our neighborhoods. There is nothing flashy in this levy, but instead improvements to the FREE public parks we can use EVERY DAY in ALL Seattle’s neighborhoods. Make your own choice: go with the mayor or go with your neighborhood.

Interesting Point.