A Seattle police officer and several Uber passengers were injured early Friday morning after a collision at 5th Avenue and Seneca Street, renewing scrutiny around emergency vehicle protocols just days after a similar downtown crash involving another SPD unit.
The incident occurred around 2 a.m. as a patrol SUV, en route to a reported domestic disturbance, collided with a rideshare vehicle carrying six family members. According to early accounts, the officer was driving with lights and sirens activated. The Uber was reportedly making a left turn onto 5th Avenue when the crash occurred. Two passengers were hospitalized, including a woman treated for a minor head injury and a 27-year-old man listed in stable condition.
The 24-year-old officer was taken to Harborview Medical Center for evaluation. The Uber driver remained at the scene and was not hospitalized.
Witnesses in the Uber say the officer ran a red light and struck their vehicle in a t-bone-style crash. Rolando Petit, one of the passengers, described the impact as forceful. “I can’t tell you how fast they were going, but they hit pretty hard,” he said. Both he and the driver claimed they didn’t see the police SUV until the moment of impact. After the initial collision, the cruiser reportedly veered into a nearby light pole.
Photographs from the scene show significant damage to both vehicles: the Uber’s front end was crushed, and the police SUV sustained heavy front and side panel damage, with airbags deployed throughout the interior.
Friday’s crash marks the second downtown incident involving a Seattle patrol car this week. On Tuesday, a different SPD unit responding to a call collided with a King County Metro bus at 6th Avenue South and South Holgate Street. In that case, the bus driver told investigators he didn’t see or hear the police vehicle before entering the intersection.
In response to the latest incident, the Seattle Police Department has launched a full internal investigation to determine whether emergency driving protocols were followed and if any departmental policies were breached. The review is expected to assess whether the officer’s use of lights and sirens aligned with SPD standards and how right-of-way procedures were managed.
These back-to-back crashes have heightened public attention around the balance between urgent police response and the risks posed to others on the road, especially in dense urban areas where visibility can be limited and intersections are often busy even at odd hours.
