RAINIER VALLEY – A Seattle police officer clipped a woman with his patrol car as she was walking across the street just before midnight Friday, then crashed into a light pole, police said.
SPD spokesman Jeff Kappel said the officer was responding to a domestic violence call involving a gun. He was in a fully marked police car with flashing lights and siren activated at about 11:50 p.m. Friday when the accident happened.
“At or near the intersection with South Willow Street a female pedestrian was crossing MLK from east to west and was struck by the patrol car’s driver-side mirror,” wrote SPD sokesman Jeff Kappel.
After hitting the woman, the officer lost control of his vehicle and slammed into a light pole south of the intersection.
Medics responded to the scene, and the woman was taken to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. The officer, a man in his 30s, was also taken to Harborview for evaluation.
The specific circumstances contributing to the collision are under investigation, Kappel said.
Martin Luther King Jr. Way was shut down for about two hours overnight during the initial investigation, and has now reopened.
