Police car hit by driver arrested for DUI
Published 7:32 am Friday, February 29, 2008
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — A Mountlake Terrace police sergeant suffered only minor injuries Jan. 31 after his patrol car was totaled by a vehicle driven by a man later arrested for drunk driving.
“You know when police vehicles are being hit by drunk drivers it can happen to anyone,” said Joie Worthen, Mountlake Terrace Police crime prevention officer.
On Saturday at about 2 a.m. the sergeant was going northbound on 56th Avenue West in his marked patrol car when he was struck by a 1994 Dodge Caravan that ran the stop sign, according to police. The van was Westbound on 230th Street SW, Worthen said.
“The sergeant’s car was hit in the front passenger side, the impact of the crash spun the sergeant’s car around and the rear passenger side struck the van,” she said.
According to Worthen, the sergeant was transported to Stevens Hospital and released. The driver of the van was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
Worthen said she knows of four police vehicles that have been hit by drunk drivers in the Mountlake Terrace area just in the last five years. The vehicles included Washington State Patrol Troopers as well.
