Sixty-four times in the first nine months of 2026, a Washington State Patrol vehicle stopped on a highway — lights flashing, a trooper working a crash scene or a traffic stop — was hit by another vehicle. Nineteen troopers were injured in those collisions. Those figures, released by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and the State Patrol for Crash Responder Safety Week, November 2 to 6, landed in the same week that drivers struck patrol cars twice more on Interstate 5 — and as the patrol publicly warned that the pattern has become, in its word, alarming.
Source: Washington State Department of Transportation / WSP release, via EIN Presswire
The warning is aimed at every driver on Washington's highways, but it lands hardest on the people who drive them for a living. I-5 through Kent, Tacoma and Seattle is one of the busiest freight corridors on the West Coast, worked daily by thousands of truck drivers — including a large Punjabi trucking community based in Washington and British Columbia. For them, the shoulder of I-5 is not scenery: it is where they stop for inspections, breakdowns and emergencies, and where troopers, tow operators and WSDOT crews work a few feet from live traffic.
Source: KOMO News
Kent, Saturday night: a trooper pulls a stranded driver over the barrier
The most recent crash happened on Saturday night on southbound I-5 near State Route 516 in Kent, in King County. A trooper had stopped beside a disabled vehicle — KOMO News reported the stop was in the HOV lane, with the trooper and the stranded driver standing outside their vehicles on the inside shoulder — when another car slammed into the back of the patrol car. Video of the incident appears to show the trooper seeing the car coming and pulling the driver he was helping over the barrier and out of the collision's path, KOMO reported.
Source: KOMO News
The trooper was out of the patrol car and was not hurt, State Patrol Trooper Rick Johnson said. A passenger in the striking vehicle suffered severe injuries, and KOMO reported the driver and two passengers were taken to hospital. The driver, a 21-year-old from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and is expected to face charges of DUI and vehicular assault, according to the State Patrol's account reported by KOMO; those are allegations, and no conviction has been entered. The State Patrol has not announced final charges in the crash.
Source: Accident News, reporting Trooper Rick Johnson / WSP
Seattle, October 25: a motorhome hits the crew blocking the SR 520 exit
A week earlier, on the morning of Sunday, October 25, a motorhome struck vehicles being used by a State Patrol trooper and a Seattle Department of Transportation employee who were blocking the State Route 520 exit from southbound I-5, north of downtown Seattle near Hamlin Street. The trooper and an SDOT crew had stopped to help with a King County Metro bus that had stalled on a ramp, at about 8:30 a.m. The trooper, who was inside his patrol car, was taken to Harborview Medical Center with leg pain and a possible concussion; a motorhome passenger was also taken to hospital. The three left lanes of I-5 and exit 168B to SR 520 were closed during the investigation, and the freeway reopened by about 1 p.m. Trooper Rick Johnson said that crash did not appear to involve criminal activity, and no charges were announced.
Source: Seattle Focal / Accident News, reporting WSP
After the third crash involving a trooper in two weeks, the Washington State Patrol urged drivers to slow down and pay attention around stopped emergency vehicles. WSDOT's Northwest Region Incident Response supervisor Dennis Smith puts the occupational reality bluntly: "It doesn't become a matter of if you're going to be hit, it's when. It's not uncommon for one of our drivers to be struck four, five or six times during their career."
The behaviour behind the numbers
The same state release that carried the 64 struck patrol cars also carried the enforcement ledger behind them. Between January and September 2026, troopers contacted 9,200 drivers for DUI, 32,400 drivers for distracted driving and 93,400 drivers for aggressive driving. WSDOT's Incident Response Team — the crews who clear crashes and help stranded motorists — answered 61,400 calls in 2025, a 40 percent increase from 43,800 in 2024. Between collision damage and ordinary wear, the State Patrol says it must replace, on average, one patrol unit with a new model every business day of the year.
Source: Washington State Department of Transportation / WSP release, via EIN Presswire
The danger is not limited to police. The state release cites the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: the fatality rate for tow truck drivers is nearly 15 times higher than that of other jobs. Washington's Move Over law protects more than troopers — it covers fire trucks, WSDOT Incident Response trucks, highway maintenance vehicles, tow trucks, solid waste trucks and utility vehicles displaying flashing lights.
Source: Washington State Department of Transportation / WSP release, via EIN Presswire
What the law actually requires of you on I-5
Washington's Move Over, Slow Down law is specific, and it is the standard troopers say drivers are failing to meet. When you pass emergency crews on a highway shoulder, you must move over one lane if you can do so safely. If moving over is not possible — because of traffic, or because there is only one lane — you must still slow to at least 10 mph below the posted speed limit while passing. More than 22 states are marking Crash Responder Safety Week this year, and WSDOT used the week to offer free Traffic Incident Management training to responders statewide — training aimed at the minutes when a crash scene is most exposed to passing traffic.
Source: Washington State Department of Transportation / WSP release, via EIN Presswire
What happens next
Crash Responder Safety Week ends Friday, November 6, but the enforcement behind it does not: the patrol's DUI, distracted-driving and aggressive-driving contacts are already running at the rates in its nine-month ledger, and the Kent crash investigation continues, with the 21-year-old driver's expected DUI and vehicular-assault charges still to be formally filed. For drivers on I-5 this weekend — freight and family traffic alike — the patrol's instruction is the same one it issued after the Kent crash: when you see flashing lights on the shoulder, move over a lane, or slow at least 10 mph below the limit. Sixty-four patrol cars say the current habit is not working.
What is solid
- WSP and WSDOT say 64 patrol units were struck in the first nine months of 2026 while troopers worked enforcement stops or crash investigations, injuring 19 troopers.
- On Saturday night a car hit a stopped patrol car on southbound I-5 near SR 516 in Kent; the trooper was unhurt, a passenger was severely injured, and the 21-year-old driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
- On October 25 a motorhome struck a trooper's car and an SDOT vehicle blocking the SR 520 exit on I-5 in Seattle; the trooper was treated at Harborview for leg pain and a possible concussion.
- Washington's Move Over law requires moving over one lane where possible, or slowing to at least 10 mph below the posted limit.
What is only claimed
- The Kent DUI and vehicular-assault case remains an allegation: the driver was arrested on suspicion, the State Patrol has not announced final charges, and no court has ruled on fault or impairment.
- Whether the rise in struck patrol cars reflects worse driving, heavier traffic, or more roadside stops is not settled by the agencies' figures — WSDOT's own incident-response calls rose 40 percent in a year, so exposure has risen alongside the collisions.