Posted on 07/26/2012 10:59:56 AM PDT by matt04
A 27-year veteran Westfield police officer has been killed following a crash while working a construction detail Thursday morning.
Westfield Police Capt. Hipolito Nunez told 22News that the officer was working an off-duty construction detail on Pontoosic Road just before 7:30, when he was struck by a dump truck. The construction area where the officer was hit was near 44 Pontoosic Rd, just south of the intersection of Pontoosic and Little River Roads.
The officer was taken to Baystate Medical Center, and Nunez said that police were notified around 10:00 A.M. that he had died.
The officer's name has not been released at this time, pending the notification of his family.
The Westfield police traffic bureau and the state police truck team are investigating, as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
At police headquarters on Washington Street, a black memorial banner hangs over the door, and the flag is flying at half-staff.
...
Westfield police will be revealing more information during a news conference at 2:00 P.M.
(Excerpt) Read more at wwlp.com ...
Live stream of press conf: http://www.wwlp.com/subindex/video/player_page
Left behind wife and two boys. Ofc. Jose Torrez(sp?)
My cousin and her husband worked road construction safety for years. Good money in it, because it is dangerous.
According to her, most injuries to safety people come from one of two sources: drivers distracted by rubber-necking as they drive by (usually too fast, as well) and the safety people becoming fatigued after working long hours, and not being alert enough to approaching traffic.
Stupid headline writers..........
Prayers for the family and the officer’s soul.
Poor guy. RIP.
Even worse, on major highways, MA uses State Troopers with their expensively-equipped patrol cars to sit idle at construction sites-- with the lightbar flashing -- instead of a simple flashing warning sign.
On I-495, I observed a high-ranking supervisor State Police with his command car (at least seven radio system antennas) parked at a construction site as a set of warning lights.
Can you say. "Exorbitant, union-extorted featherbedding -- paid for with money stolen from taxpayers"?
I can see the possibility of the need for a cop on a major construction project on a busy multi lane roadway. However, all to often I see them, sometimes with a marked car other times a POV watching over a one lane closure on a residential street while a crew works on a manhole.
Westfield has construction going on? What they building? Or are they tearing down something?
RIP my cousin, my prayers to our family
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