‘Don’t take us as another complaint. Do something about it!’ Outrage over dangerous intersection

RENTON, Wash. — It’s been a few weeks since an 18-year-old allegedly driving 112 miles an hour crashed into multiple cars at the intersection of 140th Avenue Southeast and 192nd Street in Renton, killing four people, including three children.

This tragic crash has weighed heavy on the minds of people who live near that intersection or drive on it every single day.

This crash sparked a safety meeting at the NWLife Church, not far from the intersection, with King County leadership and the public. The purpose of the meeting was for county leadership to hear what the public thinks needs to be done to address those safety issues.

“Don’t take us as another complaint. Do something about it!” Bobby Padda, who lives near the intersection, said.

The parents of Boyd “Buster” Brown and Matilda and Eloise Wilcoxson, the children who died in the crash, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting.

“This has been the wildest couple of weeks of my life,” Riva Wilcoxson said.

Many in attendance shared ideas like adding roundabouts near the intersection, speed cameras, even requesting that the King County Sheriff’s Office write more speeding tickets so drivers are encouraged to slow down.

“I’m telling ya, if these guys got tickets, they’d slow down,” one man said.

Some at Tuesday’s meeting also felt educating teens on driving and the consequences of reckless driving would also be a solution.

“Where is the funding to put drivers ed back into the schools?” one woman asked.

King County leaders like King County Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall say that over the past nine months, there have been 308 traffic stops on 140th Avenue SE. She says they have issued 151 citations during that time, 91 of which were for speeding.

“There were 31 collisions during that nine-month period,” Sheriff Cole-Tindall said.

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn says a study of the intersection will be done to see what can be implemented to make it safer. With that being said, a lot of people think King County government should take immediate action.

“But how many more people are going to get killed before something is done?” Padda said.

As both county leaders and the public continue to come up with ideas, Jaron Brown feels there needs to be a deeper look at driving behaviors overall.

“I think maybe the one message that I feel passionately about is that each of us analyze our own behavior,” Brown said.

Because many feel it will take more than legislation and road safety improvements to truly prevent tragic crashes like this from ever happening again.

“If there is something good that can come from this, I hope that there is change in people’s hearts and in their behavior toward each other,” Chase Wilcoxson said.

Organizers of Tuesday’s meeting say they plan to have another session with county leadership soon.

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