Three WA patrol cars hit in the last 10 days

Well, a Washington State Patrol trooper narrowly avoiding injury early Sunday after their car was hit by a man suspected of DUI. As Fox 13's Taylor Winkle reports, this is the third trooper vehicle hit in the last 10 days along I-5. Taylor, good morning. What's going on? And so, so far this year 19 troopers have been injured while on the job and with that number you can only imagine just how many more have experienced close calls like in the accident that we're talking about this morning. So right now we know the suspect in this crash is a 21 year old out of JBLM. I want to walk you through what happened with these pictures that show the aftermath from WSP. The trooper was blocking a stalled out car on southbound I-5 right near Des Moines when this happened. The driver and passenger in that car were teen girls. The trooper was trying to help them out. They were all standing on the shoulder. And you can see the trooper's patrol vehicle, an unmarked Ford Explorer here smashed in after that 21-year-old suspect came barreling into the trooper's car in his Honda Civic. The suspect's car hit the trooper so hard, That it caused it to crash into the original broken down car. The 21 year old driver as well as his two passengers were all taken to Harborview Medical Center this morning. A spokesperson for Harborview says the driver is in satisfactory condition, but the two passengers are both still in critical condition. The two teen girls and the trooper are okay, but we have seen devastating outcomes from similar crashes. This is a look at two other incidents involving troopers in the last 10 days. One on southbound I-5 right near 520 and one on northbound 5 near 272nd. And in the first nine months of this year, not including October or November, Washington State Patrol reports 64 units were struck. While conducting traffic enforcement or collision investigations, injuring 19 troopers. And then it was last December when trooper Tara Marisa Gooding was killed outside her patrol car investigating a two car crash. So important to know if you see an emergency vehicle on the road, the law requires you to slow down and move one lane over. And if that is not possible, if you can't get over, you are required to slow down at least 10 miles under the posted speed limit. For now, reporting near I-5 in Seattle, I'm Taylor Winkle, Fox 13 News.