SEATTLE — Seattle police announced that they have arrested the driver of a Saturn sedan that collided with a transit bus Saturday afternoon, leading to the death of a woman on a Belltown sidewalk.
The 31-year-old man will be booked into jail on investigation of vehicular homicide, after being medically cleared at Harborview Medical Center, the police update said. Police are investigating whether the driver was under the influence, the update said.
The crash occurred around 3:40 p.m. Saturday when a northbound E Line bus was traveling Battery Street near Fifth Avenue, on its usual route from Belltown to Aurora Avenue North.
The car collided with the bus, which veered onto the sidewalk, where it fatally struck a 28-year-old woman before crashing into a building.
The car driver was in critical condition over the weekend at Harborview Medical Center, after firefighters cut open the car to extricate him. He was in satisfactory condition Monday, said hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg. Eight other patients, including the bus driver and passengers, were treated over the weekend and discharged, she said.
The building was not significantly damaged and the ground floor was vacant near the impact.
The bus driver has worked for Metro since April 2022, transit spokesperson Al Sanders said. Transit operators are relieved of duty after a serious crash, and negotiate a return date. They’re paid from accrued personal days off, a paid administrative leave, or possibly state workers’ compensation, he said. Metro also offers voluntary counseling, and a peer group to help manage stress.
Full investigations are planned by both the Metro safety unit and the police major collision investigation unit.
Police said they obtained a warrant to draw a blood sample from the car driver, for analysis by a Washington State Patrol crime lab.
Fatal crashes involving a bus are infrequent and there are none in recent history that resemble the incident Saturday.
A total of 24 people died in Metro-involved crashes or incidents from 2013 to mid-2023, but only one passenger, according to the National Transit Database. By comparison, there were 1,150 total traffic deaths since 2013 in King County, a Washington state Department of Transportation database says.
