MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — A Seattle man and a Washington State Patrol trooper were injured Monday morning, Aug. 21, when the trooper’s patrol car rear-ended the man’s vehicle on an Interstate 5 on-ramp.

Leonard Whitfield, 41, of Seattle, who was driving a white Mazda Miata, was listed in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center on Monday afternoon.

Trooper Nick King, 28, who is based in King County, was released from the hospital after treatment of a head injury.

The trooper was traveling southbound in the carpool lane of the lengthy on-ramp at 236th St. SW and apparently drifted into the other lane, where Whitfield’s Miata was stopped for a traffic-metering light, Rudeen said.

The Miata was crushed when the patrol car pushed it into the back of a silver Ford Ranger pickup truck that was stopped ahead.

The impact knocked both vehicles more than 60 feet forward.

The 54-year-old Mountlake Terrace woman driving the pickup truck was not injured.

The trooper may have been looking ahead at another accident visible on I-5, trooper Kirk Rudeen said.

The on-ramps from 236th Street SW and westbound Highway 104 to I-5 were closed for four hours after the 8:47 a.m. accident. The State Patrol’s major accident investigation team combed the scene.

The trooper has been with the State Patrol since 2000, Rudeen said. He said accident investigators would forward their report to the State Patrol’s internal affairs unit.