5 hospitalized after Everett crash involving patrol car, truck

EVERETT — Five people were injured Friday, one of them seriously, in a crash at 23rd Street and Rockefeller Avenue involving a police car.

Three cars in all were involved in the wreck, which happened at 11:45 a.m., Everett police spokesman Aaron Snell said. A 59-year-old man was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after being pinned between a Snohomish County sheriff’s patrol car and a white truck.

The deputy driving the patrol car is a 54-year-old man. The Washington State Patrol was asked to conduct the crash investigation. On Friday evening it identified the deputy as John Sadro.

Others injured include two men, 21 and 74, and a 44-year-old woman. No information was provided about whether those people were passengers or drivers.

Additional information on their injuries was not available Friday evening. The deputy has been with the sheriff’s office for nine years, Snell said.

A state patrol memo said the deputy was driving the patrol car south on Rockfeller when it was struck by a vehicle being driven westbound on 23rd Street.

A woman whose house faces 23rd Street said it appeared to her that an SUV struck the patrol car. That knocked the patrol car into the parked white truck, pinning a man below the waist. The man was part of a contract crew working on a nearby house, she said.

Police could be seen Friday surveying the crash scene from several angles, including from the bucket of a fire truck ladder. The investigation shut down both roads and affected traffic to and from nearby Everett High School.

Keith Owen, 56, of Everett, said he saw the injured man pinned between the two cars.

“He wasn’t hollering. I don’t think he knew what happened,” Owen said.

Owen described the sound of the crash as an “Skrrr, Bam!”

The injured man appeared to have significant damage to his lower body, Owen said.

“He must have been in shock,” he said. “If it had been me, I would have been hollering.”

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.