Bad collision in the express lanes

Written Friday morning, on a bus headed downtown.

This morning I'm riding a King County Metro #355 bus to downtown Seattle in the express lanes, which have been jammed up solid for the past half-mile. An ambulance just passed us, siren wailing and lights flashing, our driver plus a bunch of other vehicles scattering to get out of its way. I can only assume it's on its way to reach someone who was injured in a collision ahead of us, which caused this traffic in the first place. I hope the ambulance makes it in time.

We're passing the collision now, and it's a bad one. We're down to one lane, with two fire engines, three state patrol cars, two ambulances, a WSDOT emergency truck, a lot of orange traffic barrels with lights on top, four other cars stopped, at least two of which appear damaged, and guys in orange and yellow day-glo vests everywhere. A bunch of them are bent over in a cluster behind a minivan that looks as if it were rear-ended by a union van that might have been in use during a construction project. I can only assume it's a medical emergency, and I hope s/he makes it.