For more than 40 years, Mike Holmberg has watched cars and trucks round the corner next to his Locust Way Southwest house located in Alderwood Manor, about a mile south of Swamp Creek between Bothell and Lynnwood.
In the early years, few cars traversed Locust Way’s two narrow lanes.
“It was a street that was out in the country when we all moved here,” Holmberg said.
That, he said, was before all the housing developments came along. These days, semi tractor-trailors and dump trucks frequently rattle by, cutting across his front lawn in order to clear the tight corner.
Saturday night, Aug. 11, neighbors heard a loud crash followed by sirens.
A car had rolled over in front of Holmberg’s house after striking a ditch. The car came to a stop in front of a tree, about 100 yards from the curve in the road.
Witnesses watched as Bothell and Northshore Fire Department firefighters cut the car’s roof off to reach the driver, who was not seriously injured but was taken to Stevens Hospital, according to Bothell Fire Department spokeswoman Lisa Allen.
For residents, the accident was a reminder of how dangerous their little country road has become.
“It was like an accident waiting to happen,” said Carole Johnson, a 45-year resident of Locust Way.
Neighbor Bruce Byers, who lives in the 22000 block of Locust Way, said he was watching TV and heard sirens.
“The show I was watching had sirens, so at first I didn’t pay attention,” he said. Soon, he was on the scene, where he saw a car upside down in Holmberg’s ditch.
“Every day, at least two or three times, you hear squealing tires going around that corner,” Byers said.
Neighbors say accidents happen all the time at — or close to — the sharp curve next to Holmberg’s house.
“A lot of the accidents don’t get reported,” Holmberg said. “They happen in the middle of the night. I’ve had ‘em in the flower beds a few times.”
Snohomish County workers, he said, frequently replace road signs damaged by vehicles. The county’s installed new street lights recently but has done little else to improve safety, he added.
New housing developments have been sprouting up nearby. Holmberg said three projects are underway within a half-mile of his corner.
Builders spent the week of Aug. 10 to 17 installing a water-line extension for a house along Locust Way between Larch Way and 211th Place Southwest, according to the county’s Web site.
Jim Bloodgood, county traffic engineer, said Locust Way Southwest is “part of our arterial street network” connecting Bothell to Brier and Lynnwood. He said he understands that construction projects add to the traffic but there isn’t much the county can do about lousy drivers.
“The long-term plan for Locust Way is that there will be an alternative route parallel to it and to the east,” he said.
The plan is to connect 14th Avenue West with Locust Way at 213th Street Southwest. But the project hasn’t been funded, though it’s included within the transportation element of the county’s comprehensive land-use plan, Bloodgood said.
That project may or may not alleviate traffic near Holmberg, Byers and Johnson.
Regardless, Holmberg said after 40-plus years, he’s decided to move.
“I have 25 acres in Spokane,” he said.
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