Guest guest Posted March 19, 2001 Report Share Posted March 19, 2001 For the second time this year a Tennessee state trooper has been killed in the line of duty. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trooper dies after crashing his patrol car into creek bed By JIM EAST Staff Writer The second Tennessee Highway Patrol officer killed in the line of duty this year died late Saturday when his car plunged off a Humphreys County road and into a creek bed. Trooper , 49, had just completed an investigation of a separate, unrelated traffic mishap when he apparently lost control of his patrol car, which then crashed violently about 8:30 p.m., THP spokeswoman Dana Keeton said yesterday. Details of the earlier wreck were unavailable, but it did not involve a fatality. ''He was southbound on Clydeton Road at the intersection of East Little Richland Road when he lost control in a curve,'' Keeton said. ''The vehicle left the roadway, vaulted into a creek bank, hit a large rock outcropping and overturned, at which point he was ejected.'' was taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he died about 10:30 p.m., a VUMC spokesman said yesterday. Keeton said THP investigators were at the scene yesterday in an effort to reconstruct the wreck and determine whether had on a seat belt when he wrecked. ''The car was truly just one big clump of metal, and until the investigators get in there we won't know whether it was in use and snapped, or what,'' she said. ''It's unusual for a seat belt to snap, but it can happen if you have an impact hard enough. To me, it would be just as unusual for a trooper not to be wearing a seat belt, frankly. It's just kind of second nature to them.'' was in his 13th year with the THP, she said. He also spent ''several years'' with the Dickson Police Department before joining the THP. primarily worked in Dickson County but also was assigned to duties in Cheatham and Humphreys counties. ''He was a competent officer, well thought of, and had no major problems in his career,'' Keeton said. ''This has really bowled over his colleagues.'' Trooper Mann was killed in Nashville on New Year's Day when he and a carjacking suspect with whom Mann was wrestling on Interstate 24 were struck by a Hermitage man. Trooper Lynn Ross died July 26, 2000, when a tractor-trailer slammed into his patrol car in a construction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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