Police Officer Killed On Highway Shoulder
On early Monday morning, January 19, a police officer was killed on Ohio 8, in the Cleveland suburb on Boston Heights. The full article can be found here, thanks to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The photo below is brought to you by Marvin Fong of the Plain Dealer.
The officer had parked his cruiser on the shoulder, and was outside on the roadway, cleaning up debris. An oncoming vending machine delivery truck hit the officer. The accident is still under investigation, however, the article does say that the lights of the officer’s cruiser were on at the time of the crash.
While it is unclear at this point exactly what happened here, one of the principles of defensive driving is be aware of what’s happening 10-15 seconds down the road. If you see flashing red and blue lights, slow down and move over. Maybe it’s just a routine traffic stop, but you never know. In this case, the officer was out of his cruiser. When the lights are on, you know where the police car is, but is it an accident? Something in the road? Someone in the road? If you see it in time, you can move over.
