Tragedy was narrowly avoided in Renton on Thursday night when a Washington State trooper and a tow truck driver were injured after a car collided with the patrol vehicle, causing it to crash into the tow truck driver, according to KOMO News. The trooper had been blocking a lane on State Route 167 near Interstate 405 due to an earlier incident. Around 11 p.m., a driver, who later stated they could not merge in time, struck the trooper's car with the trooper inside.
Both individuals were hurt, the state trooper and the tow truck driver were subsequently taken to the hospital and reported to have sustained minor injuries. In a concerning pattern of safety breaches, this incident is part of a rising tide, as articulated by Washington State Patrol Trooper Rick Johnson, marking the fifth patrol car struck in King County in just five days. Heading into the weekend, four patrol cars were targeted and hit by impaired drivers in a single night.
FOX13 Seattle reports that impairment was ruled out in the latest crash, accentuating a potentially alarming disregard for the safety of officers and first responders on the roads. According to Johnson, the tow truck driver was at the scene, addressing the earlier crash, and was standing outside next to the trooper's car when the patrol vehicle, struck by the car, hit him.
