A collision involving a Washington State Department of Transportation work truck and three cars shut down four lanes of northbound Interstate 5 near South 272nd Street in Federal Way on Thursday afternoon, disrupting traffic for two hours before all lanes reopened around 5 p.m. The WSDOT truck was stationed on the shoulder protecting a guardrail repair when the crash occurred around 3 p.m., and while no one suffered life-threatening injuries, the incident reveals persistent problems with how construction zones fail to adequately protect both workers and drivers on one of the state’s most heavily traveled corridors.
The fact that the WSDOT truck was unoccupied when struck raises questions about the sequence of events. According to Washington State Patrol, the truck was positioned on the shoulder to protect workers conducting guardrail repairs. Protection vehicles are standard practice in construction zones, meant to absorb impacts from vehicles that drift or crash into work areas, preventing those vehicles from hitting workers or equipment. That the truck was unoccupied suggests either workers had temporarily left the area, or the crash occurred during a work pause, or the truck was positioned as a buffer without workers immediately present.
What’s clear is that something caused three vehicles to collide with or near the protection truck with enough force to shut down four lanes for two hours. The Washington State Patrol confirmed no life-threatening injuries, which is fortunate given the scale of lane closures required. But “no life-threatening injuries” doesn’t mean no injuries. People were likely transported to hospitals, vehicles were damaged enough to require towing, and the investigation and cleanup required closing most of the northbound freeway during afternoon commute hours.
For Seattle commuters who use I-5 to travel between Seattle and Federal Way, Tacoma, or points south, construction zone crashes like this one create cascading delays that ripple through the entire transportation network. When four lanes close on I-5 at 3 p.m. near Federal Way, traffic backs up for miles. Drivers trying to avoid the backup exit onto surface streets, creating congestion in Federal Way, Des Moines, and Kent. Transit riders on King County Metro and Sound Transit buses experience delays. People miss appointments, arrive late to pick up children from daycare, and spend hours in stopped traffic.
The location, milepost 146 near South 272nd Street, is a stretch of I-5 that runs through Federal Way’s commercial core. The freeway carries roughly 200,000 vehicles per day through this section, making it one of the highest-volume corridors in Washington. Any disruption, whether from crashes, construction, or weather, immediately creates massive backups because there’s no excess capacity. The system operates near saturation during normal conditions, so when lanes close, there’s nowhere for that traffic to go.
WSDOT’s phased reopening, first opening two lanes around 4:30 p.m. and then all lanes by 5 p.m., reflects standard incident management practice. Investigators and cleanup crews work to reopen as many lanes as quickly as possible, prioritizing traffic flow while still collecting evidence and removing damaged vehicles. But even that relatively quick response, four lanes closed for 90 minutes and two lanes closed for another 30 minutes, likely created delays lasting hours beyond the actual closure period. Traffic doesn’t immediately return to normal when lanes reopen. It takes time for the backup to clear, and during that clearing period, traffic moves slowly as the accumulated vehicles work their way through the former bottleneck.
The underlying question is how three vehicles ended up colliding with or near a clearly marked WSDOT protection truck. Construction zones are supposed to have warning signs, reduced speed limits, and visual indicators like flashing lights on protection vehicles. Those measures don’t always prevent crashes, but they’re designed to give drivers sufficient warning to slow down and navigate safely through work areas. When multiple vehicles crash in a construction zone anyway, it suggests either drivers weren’t paying attention, weren’t adjusting speed appropriately, or the warnings weren’t sufficient for conditions.
I-5 construction zones are particularly challenging because the freeway’s design doesn’t provide much margin for error. Lanes are relatively narrow compared to newer highways. Shoulders are often reduced or eliminated in construction areas. Concrete barriers create hard edges with no room to recover if a vehicle drifts. Drivers traveling at freeway speeds, even reduced speeds in construction zones, have limited time to react when they encounter stopped or slowing traffic, unexpected obstacles, or vehicles merging from closed lanes.
The frequency of construction zone crashes on I-5 reflects both the volume of construction necessary to maintain aging infrastructure and the difficulty of safely working on a highway that can’t be fully closed. WSDOT conducts most major work during overnight hours when traffic is lighter, but some repairs, like the guardrail work being protected by Thursday’s truck, occur during daytime hours. Each time workers are present on or near the freeway, they’re exposed to risk from inattentive or impaired drivers, mechanical failures, or simple mistakes.
For Federal Way residents and businesses, I-5 disruptions have economic consequences beyond commuter frustration. Freight trucks carrying goods to and from the Port of Tacoma get delayed, increasing shipping costs. Customers can’t reach businesses easily. Workers arrive late. Deliveries miss schedules. A two-hour closure during afternoon hours affects thousands of trips and creates measurable economic impact across the region.
The fact that no WSDOT crew members were injured is significant. Construction zone fatalities and injuries are ongoing concerns for transportation workers. Nationally, hundreds of highway workers are struck and killed each year in work zones. Washington has experienced multiple such fatalities in recent years. The protection truck that was hit Thursday was positioned specifically to prevent workers from being struck. That it absorbed the impact while unoccupied represents the system working as designed, at least in terms of protecting human lives, even if it couldn’t prevent the crash itself.
What’s less clear is what caused the initial collision. Did one vehicle strike the protection truck and then collide with other vehicles? Did multiple vehicles crash into each other first and then strike the truck? Did vehicles collide while trying to avoid the truck or the construction zone? The Washington State Patrol investigation will determine the sequence of events and whether driver behavior, road conditions, visibility issues, or other factors contributed.
For Seattle-area drivers who regularly use I-5, this crash is a reminder of how quickly normal commutes can become hours-long ordeals. The freeway operates with so little slack capacity that any incident causing lane closures creates immediate gridlock. And with WSDOT facing massive maintenance backlogs and aging infrastructure requiring constant repairs, construction zones and the crashes they sometimes generate are persistent features of I-5 travel, not occasional inconveniences.
The reopening of all lanes by 5 p.m. prevented the worst-case scenario where closures extended into evening rush hour, but drivers who encountered the backup between 3 and 5 p.m. still experienced significant delays. Those delays have ripple effects: missed connections for travelers trying to reach Sea-Tac Airport, late arrivals for evening shift workers, disrupted family schedules, and lost productivity across thousands of individual trips.
Construction zone safety remains an unsolved problem on I-5 and highways nationwide. Despite warning signs, protection vehicles, reduced speed limits, and driver education campaigns, crashes continue occurring in work zones at rates that endanger both workers and traveling public. Thursday’s Federal Way incident avoided the worst outcome, no fatalities or life-threatening injuries, but it demonstrates that current safety measures don’t prevent multi-vehicle collisions that shut down major highways during peak travel times.
