Horrible News

Quoner · February 22, 2008

DallasNews.com, "Motorcycle officer killed in Hillary Clinton motorcade crash"

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...h.196e2bd6.html

10:29 AM CST on Friday, February 22, 2008

A veteran Dallas police officer escorting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's entourage to a rally in Oak Cliff lost control of his motorcycle and was killed Friday morning, WFAA-TV reported.

The accident happened on the Houston Street viaduct around 9:20 a.m. The Kawasaki 1000 Police Special motorcycle apparently hit a concrete wall. WFAA-TV helicopter pilot Troy Bush, who flew over the scene shortly after the incident, estimated that the officer had been thrown about 20 yards by the impact.

The victim was rushed to nearby Methodist Medical Center. The name of the officer, who has been part of the Dallas force since 1988, was not released. Rescue workers attend to a Dallas Police motorcycle officer who was injured while escorting Hilary Clinton's motorcade Friday. "It doesn’t look good," said one unnamed officer at the scene. Chief David Kunkle was seen arriving at the hospital shortly thereafter.

Following the rally, Mrs. Clinton said she was "devastated" by the officer's death, and that it was important that Americans respect people in the line of service. "I just want to express our deepest condolences" she said, adding that she was "heartsick for this loss of life."

Last year, a police officer was killed while escorting a motorcade for President George W. Bush in Albuquerque, N.M. There was a similar fatal crash involving a presidential motorcade in Hawaii in 2006.

February 22, 2008

This touches me in two ways:

1) I was in a motorcycle accident and broke my neck.. I understand how things go wrong too quickly to handle on a motorcycle. News like this always make me feel extremely lucky.

2) My wife is working surgery at that Methodist. I have yet to talk to her today, but stuff like this makes me in awe of how doctors handle this stuff day in and day out.

Also, I think it is pretty tacky to show this man's body on the stretcher with his arm flopping out.. No one *needs* to see it in that detail. They can determine from the remains of the motorcycle that is was in fact a bad collision.

Eagle1855 · February 22, 2008

Also, I think it is pretty tacky to show this man's body on the stretcher with his arm flopping out.. No one *needs* to see it in that detail. They can determine from the remains of the motorcycle that is was in fact a bad collision.

completely agree. Hopefully they posted the video BEFORE they realized he would eventually pass. Either way, it's tacky... but far more when they don't make it.

prayers for the family

FirefightnRick · February 22, 2008

Horrible! Prayers for the family.

Rick

SUMG · February 22, 2008

I hated to hear this, when I heard it on the news.

I think I heard that the officer has four children.

Edited February 22, 2008 by SUMG

ParksAndRecRick · February 25, 2008

A tragedy indeed. Our prayers out to the family and all the Dallas Police Department.

FirefightnRick · February 26, 2008

Hal Jay, Steve Lamb and the entire WBPA radio crew is doing their show all day outside at the corner of Houston and Olive streets in downtown Dallas, just across from channel 8 news taking donations for the family. The WBPA people are fantastic as they usually do this whenever we lose an emergency worker. They did it for Brian and Phillip who were killed in the Lake Worth Church fire back in '99. If you can drive by this location and give what you can.

Rick

Edited February 26, 2008 by FirefightnRick

UNTflyer · February 26, 2008

The WBAP crew also said this officer's oldest son is a UNT student.

The son, who studies classical singing at the University of North Texas...

Edited February 26, 2008 by UNTflyer

Smitty · February 26, 2008

My hat's off to any law enforcement personnel, but especially to the motorcycle officers. I used to know some motorcycle road racers, guys who rode professionally at places like Daytona where they flying at 200 mph. A lot of them said they did not ride motorcycles on the streets because it was just too dangerous.