Duty Death: Dennis Engelhard - [St. Louis]
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — A Christmas blast of winter weather led to dozens of stranded motorists and accidents on Friday, including one that killed a state trooper who was responding to another crash.
Missouri Highway Patrol Cpl. Dennis Engelhard, 49, was on the scene of a minor accident on Interstate 44 near Eureka when he was struck by an SUV that lost control on the westbound section of the highway.
Engelhard, a 10-year veteran, was hit while walking to the back of his patrol car to retrieve an item from his trunk.
A spokesman for the Highway Patrol, Sgt. Al Nothum, said it’s unclear if the SUV hit a patch of ice or spun out on the slick road, but the driver’s loss of control appears to have been a result of the weather. The incident, east of the Highway 109 exit, is being treated as an accident.
Nothum said the snow and ice that hit the region Christmas morning sent holiday travelers “all over the place” on local highways.
“There were a lot of crashes, a lot of slide-offs,” Nothum said. “The roads just got real slick.”
The snowfall did not accumulate much but — coupled with a steep drop in temperatures — left a slippery glaze on the highways that caused tumult for holiday travelers all day.
Most of the region’s interstates were closed down for at least some of the day on Christmas, either due to collisions or because driving conditions had become unsafe. One official blared over the police scanner that the roads were an “ice rink.”
On I-70 just west of St. Charles Rock Road, a 10-car accident brought traffic to a standstill.
Highway 40 (Interstate 64) — getting its first true winter test since reopening earlier this month — saw a mess of multiple-car fender benders and skid-outs as cars lost traction on the ice.
“It’s a pretty crummy way to spend Christmas,” said Melinda Hendricks, after a collision on the westbound Kingshighway on-ramp Friday afternoon.
Hendricks, of Ferguson, had just left Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where she was visiting her grandson. She said he was struck by a car on Christmas Eve.
“He ran out in the street, and it was wet so I guess the car couldn’t stop right,” she said, adding that her grandson was discharged Friday.
“We just have to stay safe out here,” she said.
Eddie Clark, 26, had planned to travel to a family gathering in Mount Vernon, Ill. His Buick Regal, however, spun out on Highway 40 not far from his University City home, forcing him to spend most of his holiday waiting for a tow truck to rescue his vehicle from the side of the highway.
Clark commended the police officer who allowed him to wait in his warm patrol car, even after dispatch radioed to tell the officer his shift was over.
“The police were great,” Clark said. “There were just so many accidents.”
The amount of snow initially caught the Missouri Department of Transportation by surprise, part of the reason why morning drivers absorbed the worst of the poor conditions.
“A dusting to a trace is what we were expecting,” said Becky Allmeroth, MoDOT’s district maintenance engineer. What they got, Allmeroth said, was a “snow squall.”
Reserve salt trucks were pulled into action once the snow became heavier, Allmeroth said.
The National Weather Service reported that the region got less than an inch of snow as of Friday afternoon, with 0.3 inches reported at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and 0.6 inches at Weldon Spring. The forecast for today called for blustery winds, scattered snow showers and high temperatures near 30.
No funeral services were announced for Engelhard. He is the first Missouri trooper to die in the line of duty since Trooper Donald K. “Kevin” Floyd was killed on Sept. 22, 2005. Floyd was struck by a vehicle in Texas County, in south central Missouri.
Engelhard, according to the Highway Patrol, was not married and had no children.
Gov. Jay Nixon issued a statement Friday asking Missourians “to join me in remembering Corporal Engelhard and his family in their prayers throughout this holiday season.”
Copyright 2009 St. Louis Post-Dispatch