Five years ago Friday, they gathered at the home of their friend’s mother.  To this day I remember the looks on their faces…utter sadness, rage, grief, disbelief and shock.  They watched as their friend’s son played in the driveway unaware of the day’s events.  With each passing moment another friend arrived.  This was all much too soon.  These men had gathered like this only eighteen months before as another friend’s family had their worlds torn apart.  Once again, they have placed a black band around their badges.  Days later they would carry their friend’s coffin trying desperately to fight back the tears.  Again, the bagpipes, the gun salute and the 10-42.  These men who could have easily walked away after losing so much, but did not.  These men who chose, even after burying two brothers, to continue to protect and serve are who we will honor today.  Five years after they watched their friend’s patrol car sitting ablaze in the middle of Interstate 40.  Five years after they had to call their wives and say, “Anthony is gone.”  These are the men of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol’s Troop G District 5.  This month’s update honors the men of NCSHP’s G-5.

Everyday I check my e-mail with hesitation because I know they are coming.    I know the e-mails informing me of yet another struck-by, another close call, another funeral will be in the mix.  I am one of the few that hope my “inbox” is full of Viagra ads and “invitaions” because the remainder of my “inbox” only means sorrow for someone’s family…

Trooper Glenn Messenger, of the Connecticut State Police, was extricated from his Ford Crown Victoria and  with possible head and back injuries, after his patrol car was struck after while he was issuing a citation.

West Pottsgrove, PA police officer, Ken Moyer, was injured when his patrol car was struck while he was issuing a citation.

Three members of a Richmond, VA  Ambulance Authority crew were injured when they were struck as they were putting an accident victim into the back of one of their rigs.

Vincent Torres, of Black Eagle Towing in Miami, Florida, was killed when he was struck as he assisted a motorist.

I could go on and on and list all of the e-mails that I receive, but at some point the tears make it all blur.  These four were just some of this past week’s.  For a moment in time, in Southington, CT in West Pottsgrove, PA, and in Richmond, VA world’s came to a screeching halt as phones rang to inform family members that their loved ones had been injured.  In Miami, Florida the world not only stopped, but fell apart for Vincent Torres’ family when they received that phone call or knock at the door that Vincent had been killed. 

All we can do today is continue on.  We continue to find the strength to educate motorists all the while knowing for some it is too much too late, but with the knowledge that our efforts might just save one family from the pain.  We gathered last week in Concord, NC with AAA at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway to do just that.  To educate while we have the chance.  Please visit http://www.f-o-r-s.com/home/media/ and scroll to the bottom of the page to read several articles about our press conference.  Once again, thank you to AAA Carolinas for all of your assistance in educating motorists about the Move Over Law.

As I mentioned last month, we may have the chance to purchase up to 50 billboards across NC.  The billboard will have Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his friend, Sgt. Garrett Barger of the NCSHP, with a Move Over Law message.  We will send out an update with more information shortly.

I can walk through the events of five years ago as if it happened yesterday.  I can remember looking at a blonde-headed little boy that searched the faces of the troopers that gathered in the driveway of his grandmother’s house wondering why his father was not among them.  A Friday, five years ago, a beautiful day in the mountains of western North Carolina.  A clear blue sky only to be marred by the thick black smoke that rose from the interstate.   A life gone too soon.  A life gone before so many could say “goodbye.” 

Five years ago I began Families for Roadside Safety, but it is an anniversary I sometimes wish to forget.  I am aware of how much we have done in the past five years, and am proud and humbled by it.  I am also aware that I brought lights and cameras to families and friends when maybe all they needed was darkness and quiet.  I cannot change the past, but can hopefully mold the future.  A future where the men and women who work our nation’s roadsides are not seen as warm bodies, but recognized as husbands, fathers, sisters, wives and children.  They are there to protect and serve….us.  We asked them to be there, it is only fair that we protect them.

Move Over and give them a lane….Slow Down and give them a chance.