@12: Are you serious? This is not exactly a high frequency occurrence. What would you depend on to get to the airport? You could not depend on cars or busses to get you to the airport, because they can break down, get stuck in horrendous traffic, or accidents. You could not go on foot, because you might pull a muscle. You could not go by helicopter, because the helicopter might crash. You could not go by boat, because you might get hit by a rogue wave. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Best not to go anywhere.

Often, the green light is very short, even if I have pressed and patiently waited for the walk sign to appear.
In that case, a pedestrian is left with three choices—
Stay on your side of MLK and wait for the next walk sign, cursing quietly and Surrender to our public trans. system your chances of catching the bus;
Cross half-way on the green light, stand as a law-abiding citizen, in the middle of the light rail track, truly a cheap thrill;
Or (and especially if your bus is coming) cross halfway with the light and cross the rest of the way on your own common sense.
Honestly, if the light is red when I get to MLK across from my bus stop, I press the walk button, but I cross when the street is empty, again using my famous (sic) common sense. I don’t LIKE standing in the middle of the street watching the bus go by. Safer to cross before I can see it, calmly and carefully.
At my bus stop, Dawson and MLK, there have always been dead intervals in the traffic, so this is what I did in the past, “before.”
An older woman was hit and killed (as I recall) crossing at that intersection, and I’m sure she got a very short green light and didn’t realize it, or she was just trying to…cross the road…

For the non-bus riding readers, the bus stops are pretty far apart now, so the bus can appear down the road and sail by in a very short time. That makes the ride faster, but also some difficulties for people trying to catch the bus.
Much like the light rail stations being so far apart—a faster trip, once you are actually on board… And I know the bus route #8 is scheduled to run every 15 minutes or so, but schedules are vulnerable to any odd event, such as a Mtn. Dew truck. (finishing on a “light” note)

The truck trailer had the words “If you’re a cut above, call 1-800-395-13..” but the last two digits were covered with black spray paint. The URL http://www.npe.com is clearly visible in my photos. 

I’m guessing, and hoping, that the truck driver is never allowed to operate a commercial vehicle again. We all make mistakes but when it is your job to operate that class of vehicle you have a higher level of accountability and you should be held to a higher standard than the average driver (hence the additional commercial licensing requirements.) 

We were on the way to the airport and although we were told by officials that transportation would be provided, we had to walk to the next station down the line and ended up catching a cab after waiting for 20+ minutes and missed our scheduled flight. Thank you to Alaska Airlines for moving us to the next flight without charge…

Fault was almost definitely on the truck driver, however Sound Transit did not respond well to the situation. I had to personally release the emergency door lock to let the police/medics in after several minutes of waiting and then we were held on the train for ~10 minutes so all of our info could be recorded. We were left without any way to finish our pre-paid ride and no information to follow up with the authorities.

My 10 cents (taking the extra 8 since I was the closest to danger) is that Sound Transit should have pre-planned and rehearsed for this kind of emergency situation and should have stand-by vehicles as well as some kind of contact info sheet/handout so that the affected passengers can follow up easily.

I had to chuckle when I read the sign on the truck and looked at the arial view of the accident…  ”If you’re a cut above”

@5 Yes, some of the signal lights are l o n g