Trooper injured when teen driver hits patrol car

A Washington State Patrol trooper was injured when his parked car was hit by another car on the shoulder of I-5 Monday night in Lynnwood.

WSP spokesman Keith Leary says Trooper Chris Caiola was taken to Harborview with non-life threatening injuries. His canine partner was unhurt.

“Without warning, what I initially thought was an explosion happened ,and I’d soon realized that I’d been hit and I kind of equate it to somebody picked up the car shook it around and then put me back down,” Caiola described to 97.3 KIRO FM’s Dori Monson Show.

The crash mangled the left side of the patrol car and Rescue crews had to extricate Caiola.

Caiola said that his thoughts were spinning, thinking about his family, even his dog, since he is a K9 officer, his dog Buster was on patrol with him when he was hit.

“All of these things start going through my head,” said Caiola. “I heard I’m seriously injured and I get my phone so I can call my wife and kids, and ‘how is Buster?’ I can’t see him.”

The 19-year-old woman driving the car that hit Caiola was arrested, and could be charged with vehicular assault. She was tested for a possible DUI and toxicology reports are pending.

Caiola said he hopes that the driver is able to move forward – and learn from her mistakes.

“I hope that whatever lead the driver to hit me, to make the mistakes she made, I just hope she moves forward from this and learns that there is always consequences at some point in your life for actions.”