On Saturday, November 4, 2017 Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper of the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS) lost his life when his patrol car was struck by a pickup while the trooper was conducting a traffic stop around 3 PM on Interstate 35 near Temple. Another vehicle was also damaged in the same accident.
Senior Trooper Nipper had been with the TDPS since 1983, and had over three decades of service with that agency. Prior to joining the TDPS Highway Patrol, Trooper Nipper served in several municipal and county agencies, including the Coryell County Sheriff's Office. His total service as a peace officer spans over four decades.
The circumstances surrounding Trooper Nipper's death are both tragic and too-often repeated. An officer stops a vehicle for a traffic violation, both vehicles park on the shoulder of the road, and an approaching vehicle strikes the trooper, his car, or both. Too many officers have lost their lives this way - when the oncoming traffic should not have been on the shoulder in the first place. Why did the pickup swerve to the shoulder and strike Trooper Nipper on that Saturday afternoon? At the writing of this post I cannot be sure, as I have not seen any further information regarding the driver of the pickup, who was in the hospital in Temple as of Sunday.
The Texas Legislature finally recognized the danger that "routine traffic stops" posed to officers who, of necessity, stopped traffic violators and issued citations along the shoulder of the roadway. Many times there is no other place to conduct the traffic stop than on the side of the ride. A safe exit or side street may not be available for miles from the point of the violation. To try to maximize officer safety, a law went into effect in 2015, I believe, if not the year before, that requires drivers to move to the next lane of travel when approaching an emergency vehicle stopped along side the highway or street. More importantly, the law requires drivers who cannot change lanes due to heavy traffic to slow down to twenty miles slower than the posted speed limit, unless the speed limit is under 25 mph, at which time the driver must slow to five miles per hour. If every driver obeyed this particular law, both officers and those pulled over by the officers would be much safer.
At the police academy, officers are trained in the techniques of making safe traffic stops. One of the first things officers are taught is that they can choose the location at which they want to make the traffic stop. Such things to be considered include the immediate environment, volume of traffic, whether the location is isolated or in a more traveled area, and whether are not there is sufficient area along side the street or road to allow for a safe traffic stop. In theory an officer is free to choose the timing and location of the traffic stop. In real life it is not quite that simple. I know from personal experience that persons stopped for traffic violations are extremely upset when an officer tells them that they were stopped for violations that occurred several blocks or a couple of miles back. The driver invariably yells, "Oh yeah! Well, why didn't you stop me a couple of miles back?!" If the officer attempts to explain that it was because the officer wanted to make the stop in a safer location, that explanation never seems to satisfy the irate driver.
Unfortunately for Trooper Nipper, the option of following the violator then making the traffic stop in a safer location simply was not available. Interstate 35 is under major renovation construction for literally MILES both north and south of Temple. Many exits have been closed, and in many locations, the shoulder of the roadway has been narrowed due to construction. BUT...and I emphasize...the officer had done everything he could to assure both the safety of the person he stopped, and his own safety. Both vehicles were on the shoulder and out of the right lane of traffic. AND...all approaching traffic was REQUIRED BY LAW to change lanes. That may not have been an option for the driver of the pickup. If that was the case, the driver was nevertheless REQUIRED to slow down to a minimum of twenty miles per hour UNDER the posted speed limit. I have not driven that stretch of interstate in several months, but I believe the construction speed limit was set at either 60 MPH or 65 MPH. This means that oncoming traffic should have been traveling at no more than 45 MPH when approaching and passing the trooper's patrol car. And certainly there should have been no traffic at all on the shoulder anywhere near the trooper's location.
Was the driver of the pickup drunk or on illegal drugs? Maybe he was innocently texting while he was driving? Or perhaps he just did not have time to slow to the required maximum of 20 MPH under the speed limit. Whatever the reason, the driver chose not to slow down. Even then, however, he probably would not have struck the trooper's car. Something, either a distraction or the influence of some substance, caused the driver not only to fail to either change lanes or to slow down, but also to run off the road onto the shoulder, where he struck the trooper's car.
As pictures of the accident scene have made their way onto the media and the Internet, it is extremely clear that the pickup was traveling at a high rate of speed, not the 40 - 45 miles per hour as required by the "move over or slow down" law. Trooper Nipper's patrol car was damaged almost beyond recognition as a state police car, and was barely recognizable as a vehicle at all! The pickup was severely damaged as well. Although I have seen nothing official yet as far as estimations of vehicle speed and driver distraction or intoxication, I am sure that the accident investigation will reveal both excessive speed for the conditions at the time, and that the driver was either intoxicated or was distracted. One man's dereliction of his legal duties and inattention to the road (for whatever reasons) cost the life of this good man and endangered the person the trooper had stopped as well.
No, Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper was not shot or murdered in some other way by a dangerous criminal; instead, he was killed in the line of duty while performing the most dangerous task an officer, particularly a highway patrolman, can do...a "routine" traffic stop. His death was not only tragic, but senseless. The law that should have saved this trooper's life had been "on the books" for at least two years. It is up to motorists to follow this law. Even more so, it is up to the individual who has been drinking alcoholic beverages or taking illegal drugs to make the conscious choice NOT to drive until he or she is once again sober. And, it is very important as well to obey the law that prohibits a driver from texting while driving. So many fatalities have resulted as well from this innocuous activity.
The vast majority of Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers, Narcotics Officers, Investigators, and Texas Rangers who have been killed in the line of duty over the years have lost their lives in traffic-related incidents. Far too many of these traffic incidents are in fact troopers being struck by drivers who drove off the road and into the traffic stop. If there is a positive in Trooper Nipper's death, it may be that more Texans, because of this tragedy, will choose to obey the "move over" law, will not text while driving, and will choose not to drive when they are impaired for any reason.
Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper (TDPS) leaves behind his wife and three children. My prayers and thoughts are with this family and their loved-ones, and with the troopers who lost their comrade. Senior Trooper Nipper, I, and thousands of other Texans, thank you for your many, many years of dedicated service to the people of Texas, and honor you as you made the ultimate sacrifice. And the Thin Blue Line (sprinkled with the khaki of the TDPS fallen) is a little thicker in Heaven now. May you rest in peace, and may the Good Lord continue to surround and hold your sweet wife and children in the days to come.
And may God Bless America...
Senior Trooper Nipper had been with the TDPS since 1983, and had over three decades of service with that agency. Prior to joining the TDPS Highway Patrol, Trooper Nipper served in several municipal and county agencies, including the Coryell County Sheriff's Office. His total service as a peace officer spans over four decades.
The circumstances surrounding Trooper Nipper's death are both tragic and too-often repeated. An officer stops a vehicle for a traffic violation, both vehicles park on the shoulder of the road, and an approaching vehicle strikes the trooper, his car, or both. Too many officers have lost their lives this way - when the oncoming traffic should not have been on the shoulder in the first place. Why did the pickup swerve to the shoulder and strike Trooper Nipper on that Saturday afternoon? At the writing of this post I cannot be sure, as I have not seen any further information regarding the driver of the pickup, who was in the hospital in Temple as of Sunday.
The Texas Legislature finally recognized the danger that "routine traffic stops" posed to officers who, of necessity, stopped traffic violators and issued citations along the shoulder of the roadway. Many times there is no other place to conduct the traffic stop than on the side of the ride. A safe exit or side street may not be available for miles from the point of the violation. To try to maximize officer safety, a law went into effect in 2015, I believe, if not the year before, that requires drivers to move to the next lane of travel when approaching an emergency vehicle stopped along side the highway or street. More importantly, the law requires drivers who cannot change lanes due to heavy traffic to slow down to twenty miles slower than the posted speed limit, unless the speed limit is under 25 mph, at which time the driver must slow to five miles per hour. If every driver obeyed this particular law, both officers and those pulled over by the officers would be much safer.
At the police academy, officers are trained in the techniques of making safe traffic stops. One of the first things officers are taught is that they can choose the location at which they want to make the traffic stop. Such things to be considered include the immediate environment, volume of traffic, whether the location is isolated or in a more traveled area, and whether are not there is sufficient area along side the street or road to allow for a safe traffic stop. In theory an officer is free to choose the timing and location of the traffic stop. In real life it is not quite that simple. I know from personal experience that persons stopped for traffic violations are extremely upset when an officer tells them that they were stopped for violations that occurred several blocks or a couple of miles back. The driver invariably yells, "Oh yeah! Well, why didn't you stop me a couple of miles back?!" If the officer attempts to explain that it was because the officer wanted to make the stop in a safer location, that explanation never seems to satisfy the irate driver.
Unfortunately for Trooper Nipper, the option of following the violator then making the traffic stop in a safer location simply was not available. Interstate 35 is under major renovation construction for literally MILES both north and south of Temple. Many exits have been closed, and in many locations, the shoulder of the roadway has been narrowed due to construction. BUT...and I emphasize...the officer had done everything he could to assure both the safety of the person he stopped, and his own safety. Both vehicles were on the shoulder and out of the right lane of traffic. AND...all approaching traffic was REQUIRED BY LAW to change lanes. That may not have been an option for the driver of the pickup. If that was the case, the driver was nevertheless REQUIRED to slow down to a minimum of twenty miles per hour UNDER the posted speed limit. I have not driven that stretch of interstate in several months, but I believe the construction speed limit was set at either 60 MPH or 65 MPH. This means that oncoming traffic should have been traveling at no more than 45 MPH when approaching and passing the trooper's patrol car. And certainly there should have been no traffic at all on the shoulder anywhere near the trooper's location.
Was the driver of the pickup drunk or on illegal drugs? Maybe he was innocently texting while he was driving? Or perhaps he just did not have time to slow to the required maximum of 20 MPH under the speed limit. Whatever the reason, the driver chose not to slow down. Even then, however, he probably would not have struck the trooper's car. Something, either a distraction or the influence of some substance, caused the driver not only to fail to either change lanes or to slow down, but also to run off the road onto the shoulder, where he struck the trooper's car.
As pictures of the accident scene have made their way onto the media and the Internet, it is extremely clear that the pickup was traveling at a high rate of speed, not the 40 - 45 miles per hour as required by the "move over or slow down" law. Trooper Nipper's patrol car was damaged almost beyond recognition as a state police car, and was barely recognizable as a vehicle at all! The pickup was severely damaged as well. Although I have seen nothing official yet as far as estimations of vehicle speed and driver distraction or intoxication, I am sure that the accident investigation will reveal both excessive speed for the conditions at the time, and that the driver was either intoxicated or was distracted. One man's dereliction of his legal duties and inattention to the road (for whatever reasons) cost the life of this good man and endangered the person the trooper had stopped as well.
No, Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper was not shot or murdered in some other way by a dangerous criminal; instead, he was killed in the line of duty while performing the most dangerous task an officer, particularly a highway patrolman, can do...a "routine" traffic stop. His death was not only tragic, but senseless. The law that should have saved this trooper's life had been "on the books" for at least two years. It is up to motorists to follow this law. Even more so, it is up to the individual who has been drinking alcoholic beverages or taking illegal drugs to make the conscious choice NOT to drive until he or she is once again sober. And, it is very important as well to obey the law that prohibits a driver from texting while driving. So many fatalities have resulted as well from this innocuous activity.
The vast majority of Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers, Narcotics Officers, Investigators, and Texas Rangers who have been killed in the line of duty over the years have lost their lives in traffic-related incidents. Far too many of these traffic incidents are in fact troopers being struck by drivers who drove off the road and into the traffic stop. If there is a positive in Trooper Nipper's death, it may be that more Texans, because of this tragedy, will choose to obey the "move over" law, will not text while driving, and will choose not to drive when they are impaired for any reason.
Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper (TDPS) leaves behind his wife and three children. My prayers and thoughts are with this family and their loved-ones, and with the troopers who lost their comrade. Senior Trooper Nipper, I, and thousands of other Texans, thank you for your many, many years of dedicated service to the people of Texas, and honor you as you made the ultimate sacrifice. And the Thin Blue Line (sprinkled with the khaki of the TDPS fallen) is a little thicker in Heaven now. May you rest in peace, and may the Good Lord continue to surround and hold your sweet wife and children in the days to come.
And may God Bless America...
Thank you for the honor given. The law was actually passed in Texas legislature on September 1, 2003. I didn't even realize it had been that long ago. Doesn't seem like it does it?
ReplyDeleteAgain, thank you for this honor. Tammy, Michael and Janie, Amy and Mike, and Lori appreciate all the honor given. We are all floored by the overwhelming support shown.
May God continue to be with you all.
ReplyDelete