Date: April 15, 2009
Community and Government Affairs
City of Lake Forest Park
206-368-5440
News Release
Coordinated City Response to Emergencies
Last weekend there was an accident involving a truck that went off the road into a stream and resulted in significant damage to a private driveway bridge.
How does the City respond to an accident which involves the personal safety of the driver or passengers in a vehicle, interrupted traffic flow, damage to utilities including water, sewer, and power to the residence, and impacts sensitive areas and damages to structures?
Typically city personnel respond to a 911 call. Police and Fire are usually the first on the scene. Their initial priority is life safety. If there are people trapped in the vehicles, the police and fire personnel are trained to extract them. The fire department provides emergency medical services and transports any injured people to local hospitals.
Police are responsible for notifing other city agencies including public works and planning. The public works department has personnel “on-call” 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Public works crews are deployed to assess the incident and notify service providers -- water districts, electrical utilities, cable, fiber optic telecommunications and Department of Ecology. 
Public works crews set out traffic control and to respond to emergencies that could impact the environment. In this incident with a truck in the stream, the public works department deployed four booms across the stream to capture any contaminants before they flowed down stream. Public works also worked with the owner of the truck to make sure debris did not migrated downstream and cause damage to other culverts, drainage systems or public roads.
Since the accident occurred in a sensitive area, the planning department documented the disturbance to the creek and worked with the property 
owner to reduce danger and eliminate further risk to people or property. The property owner is encouraged to come into city hall to get the proper permits to replace the damaged structure. In the accident last week, the driveway bridge was destroyed, and utilities disrupted. Emergency clean up was required to get debris out of the stream and t o make sure the disrupted utilities were repaired. Planning and public works personnel notify other agencies with jurisdiction such as the State Department of Ecology and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Coordination with these agencies will be necessary to acquire the permit approvals that will be needed to replace the bridge.
Emergencies often result in disruption to people and damage to property. The City teams are trained to respond to emergencies and to provide services in an effort to keep people safe and protect property.
