A 26-year-old man was going the wrong way on State Route 520 just after midnight on Sept. 25 in Seattle. Two cars that were trying to avoid him crashed into each other, but the young man kept going. He then collided head-on with a Washington State Trooper.
The offending driver, who was believed to be drunk at the time, crashed into the trooper’s car after being spotted driving the wrong way. Luckily, the state trooper wasn’t hurt, nor were the other motorists who crashed trying to avoid a collision.
After the second accident, the trooper noted how the suspected drunk driver pulled away very slowly — so slowly that the trooper was able to discern a “blank look” on the man’s face.
After hitting the officer, the driver continued onto Interstate 5 — going in the wrong direction. Because his vehicle was heavily damaged, it quit on him on the north side of the Ship Canal Bridge. The man got out of the car and jumped over a barrier close to NW 42nd Street. When he did, he fell about 20 feet. Seattle police caught him after he fell, and he was taken to a hospital for treatment for injuries.
Because the man was allegedly drunk throughout this series of events, he will face a DUI charge as well as a hit-and-run charge. Not only that; he put others’ lives — and his own — in danger. Though a news site indicated that no one else was injured, it isn’t uncommon for car accident injuries to show up a few days or even a month after the crash. If the police officer or the occupants of the other two cars develop injuries, the victims will need to be aware of their rights under Washington’s personal injury laws.
Source: KIMATV, “Wrong-way driver crashes into state trooper on SR-520,” Sept. 25, 2012