JEFFERSON COUNTY, Wash. — A Washington State Patrol (WSP) commercial vehicle enforcement officer was released from Harborview Medical Center Thursday after an incident earlier in the week.
The officer was airlifted to HMC in Seattle after being struck by a stolen pickup truck Tuesday morning, June 2.
WSP Trooper Chelsea Hodgson said Officer Alfred Alderson, 55, was conducting a traffic stop on US 101 near Discovery Bay when the patrol vehicle he was in was struck by a Ford F350 that was previously reported stolen.
The crash happened in the southbound lanes just north of the State Route 104 interchange.
Witnesses reported seeing the driver of the stolen truck driving erratically on US 101, including passing vehicles in a no-passing zone, before leaving the roadway and slamming into the back of Anderson's fully-marked patrol vehicle.
Officer Anderson was inside his truck when he was struck. He was not wearing a seatbelt at the time as he prepared to exit the vehicle. The impact of the crash pushed his patrol vehicle into the semi-truck Anderson was inspecting at the time.
The driver of the stolen truck, who was allegedly impaired at the time, was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
Hodgson said Officer Alderson and the driver who struck him were airlifted to Harborview with serious injuries. The driver of the vehicle that was stopped was not injured.
The driver who struck the officer was taken into custody for suspicion of vehicular assault.
Impaired driver was an arson suspect
According to the Clallam County Sheriff's Office, the driver of the stolen truck was wanted for arson.
Around 9:20 a.m., deputies responded to the Longhouse Market and Deli along Highway 101 in Blyn after receiving a 911 call that someone was drenching vehicles in gasoline with a fuel nozzle at the gas pumps and threatening to set them on fire.
The suspect sprayed a witness who confronted him about a van not belonging to him, before setting the van on fire.
As deputies arrived, they were told the suspect set a van on fire and stole a truck, fleeing toward Jefferson County.
While searching for the suspect, deputies learned the stolen truck had collided with a Washington State Patrol vehicle near Discovery Bay.