Washington State Patrol trooper injured after motorhome slams into cruiser on I-5 in Seattle

A three-vehicle crash on I-5 in Seattle put a Washington State Patrol (WSP) trooper in the hospital Sunday morning.

The officer was in his patrol car, using it to block traffic from entering the ramp from southbound I-5 to SR 520 because a disabled Metro bus was on it.

A Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) pickup truck with a large electronic reader board assisted the trooper with the traffic diversion.

The truck’s reader board was flashing large arrows directing drivers away from the freeway ramp.

WSP Trooper Rick Johnson said the driver of a motorhome approaching the exit didn’t see the stopped vehicles and plowed into both the trooper’s cruiser and the WSDOT pickup truck.

“The motorhome struck the trooper’s car and knocked it across the lanes and then struck the DOT truck,” Johnson said.

An ambulance arrived after the crash and transported the injured trooper to a hospital.

He suffered a leg injury and a possible concussion.

The driver of a motorhome slammed into the rear end of this state patrol car while the trooper was inside it Sunday morning. (Photo: Washington State Patrol)

The driver of the WSDOT truck was outside his pickup when the motorhome hit both vehicles.

He was not hurt.

There were two people in the motorhome. The driver was not injured, but a passenger suffered a broken ankle.

Johnson emphasized accidents like this are unfortunate and preventable. In fact, laws in the state of Washington require drivers to move over one lane, or at least slow down if it’s not safe to change lanes.

“State law is you move over,” Johnson said. “You slow down when you approach emergency vehicles alongside any roadway. It’s paying attention. Slow down. Make sure you’re aware of what’s ahead of you so we can prevent these things from happening.”

He said it’s too early in the investigation to know how fast the motorhome was going or whether the driver was slowing down when it struck the two vehicles.

Debris from the collision was scattered across the freeway. The crash left the trooper with an injured leg and a possible concussion. (Photo: Washington State Patrol)

The state patrol said its goal is to prevent anyone from getting hurt in highway collisions. But when it’s a law enforcement officer who is injured, the impact is even greater on fellow officers.

“It affects us, and it just reassures us that we need to have our heads on a swivel and be aware of potential things like this that may happen,” Johnson said.

Second trooper vehicle struck on I-5 in 4 days

The collision is the second one involving a trooper’s vehicle in just four days.

“We don’t want anyone to get injured in any collisions, but we’re out there every day, and it’s dangerous,” Johnson said. “We had a trooper’s vehicle that was struck last week. She was not in it. That was an impaired driver. This is no impairment. It just looks like not paying attention.”

In the other collision, a state trooper narrowly avoided injury on northbound I-5 near S. 272nd, when her SUV was hit by an impaired driver early Thursday morning.

Luckily, the trooper was outside of the vehicle at the time and was not hurt.

The state patrol said the trooper’s cruiser had its emergency lights flashing when it happened, and those lights were clearly visible from a great distance.

The collision pushed the patrol car across the freeway and into a barrier.

The driver in Thursday’s crash was arrested and booked into the King County Jail.