Officer Down: Trooper Evan F. Schneider
By Michael Jamison
The Missoulian
COLUMBIA FALLS — A Montana Highway Patrol trooper was killed, as was an oncoming motorist, when their vehicles crashed head-on late Tuesday near Columbia Falls.
A woman, traveling in the vehicle that collided with Evan F. Schneider’s cruiser at 7:15 p.m., remains in critical condition.
Officials said the accident happened east of Columbia Falls on U.S. Highway 2, not far from the small town of Hungry Horse. It is a stretch of roadway known by locals as a dangerous area, with frequent accidents.
Schneider was traveling westbound, investigators said, when he saw an eastbound vehicle make a traffic violation. The trooper turned around, and began pursuit with his emergency lights on.
Officials said Schneider passed two vehicles, using a multilane section of highway, and had entered a two-lane stretch when his Ford Crown Victoria sedan collided with a westbound pickup truck. The half-ton truck, investigators said, appeared to have crossed the center line.
Both Schneider and the male occupant of the truck - 42-year-old Roy Allen Moore of Hungry Horse - died at the scene. The female, whose name has not been released, was “very seriously injured,” according to spokesperson Lynn Solomon.
Both Moore and the woman were ejected from the truck by the force of the crash. The woman was in critical condition late Wednesday at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
The crash remains under investigation, Solomon said, adding that an accident reconstruction team was on the site within hours of the crash.
Schneider, who was just weeks shy of his 30th birthday, joined the Highway Patrol in January 2004. The Kalispell man is survived by his wife, Carrie, and his brother, James, who also is a trooper stationed in the Kalispell district.
Colleagues were “stunned,” Solomon said Wednesday, and “still trying to come to terms with the tragedy.”
“Although the work we do takes us to every corner of the state, the Patrol is a small, close-knit organization,” said MHP Col. Paul Grimstad. “We lost a colleague and a good man. Evan will be missed.”
Funeral services are set for 2 p.m. Tuesday at Kalispell’s Christian Center Assembly of God Church.
Schneider is the sixth Highway Patrol trooper to die in the line of duty since the Patrol’s creation 73 years ago. He is also the second to die in less than a year on Flathead Valley roads.
On Oct. 9, 2007, trooper David Graham died in a crash about two miles north of Kalispell, when an oncoming vehicle crossed lanes and hit him head-on.
Other MHP officers killed on the job include:
Patrolman Robert Steele, killed Nov. 2, 1946, while responding to a report of an armed robbery in Billings. He was shot in the neck after approaching the getaway car, parked in a ravine off Highway 10.
Officer James Anderson, killed Aug. 1, 1954, while pulling over a driver on Bozeman Hill. He was struck by an oncoming vehicle.
Officer Richard Hedstrom was killed south of Kalispell on July 19, 1973. He had been on the road only a few weeks, following recruit academy, when he was struck by a truck while writing a warning ticket.
Officer Michael Ren was shot April 8, 1978, near Eureka. He was attempting to arrest a man on an outstanding warrant, and had approached the suspect’s vehicle with gun drawn. The suspect pulled a rifle and shot Ren.
Copyright 2008 The Missoulian