Date:  Friday, December 14, 2007

Contact:
Lisa Murdock, Communications Manager, 360-507-1854

OLYMPIA—WSDOT Incident Response Driver, David Ball, suffered injuries in a collision on I-5 in Fife this morning when he was struck while clearing debris from the roadway. Ball had closed the left, southbound lane of the freeway and exited his truck, which was equipped with a lighted arrow board, to clear debris from a previous collision when another vehicle struck his truck with such force that he was hit by his own rig. The Washington State Patrol reported that driver of the vehicle that hit the incident response truck suffered fatal injuries. Washington State Patrol, Fire and WSDOT personnel responded to the scene and Ball was transported to a local hospital. Ball, a 7-year WSDOT employee, is in satisfactory condition and his wife and coworkers are by his side.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the family of the driver that hit our vehicle and with David and his family,” said Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond. “Safety is a top priority for us and this is a tragic reminder that we must all be vigilant anytime we’re on the road, whether we’re driving or working.”

Since WSDOT expanded the incident response program in 2002, WSDOT's drivers have responded to close to 275,000 calls for help on state highways. Today marks the 11th incident involving WSDOT incident response drivers in that time period. Four resulted in injuries to WSDOT workers. Most recently, in January 2007, an incident response driver was struck while helping clear a serious collision on snow-covered I-5 near Ferndale.

Incident Response Teams are specially trained WSDOT employees who respond to blocking incidents on state highways. They clear roads and help drivers to get traffic moving as safely and quickly as possible. WSDOT incident response drivers are trained to work closely with Washington State Patrol to help with traffic control and clear the roadway after a collision. They also change flat tires and assist during storms and other natural disasters.

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