Trooper Robert Ambrose, 31, was killed on December 19, 2002, when his troop car was struck from behind by a vehicle on the New York State Thruway in the city of Yonkers.
Trooper Ambrose was investigating a property damage automobile collision when a speeding vehicle, being operated by a 20-year old intoxicated driver, lost control and struck the rear of his Troop Car. This caused the Troop Car to catch fire and resulted in Trooper Ambrose’s death. A person from the original accident Trooper Ambrose had been investigating and the intoxicated driver were also killed in the crash.
Trooper Ambrose was a five-year veteran of the State Police and had served in Troops K, F and T. He was assigned to SP Tarrytown at the time of his death.
Troop T — December 19, 2019
Captain Michael T. Eaton, Lieutenant Brian T. Ferrone, and members of Troops T, F, and K, honored the memory of Trooper Robert W. Ambrose, Shield #198.
Trooper Ambrose was killed in 2002, while investigating a crash on the New York State Thruway in the city of Yonkers.
RS-USA Comment: In the early years of this century, several law enforcement officers across the USA were killed specifically in Ford Crown Victoria squad cars which had been hit from behind and then caught fire. According to vehicle engineering experts, this was due to the gas tank being located behind the rear axle of the vehicle and therefore being more prone to being ruptured and ignited if the car was rear-ended — a scenario not dissimilar to the Ford Pinto fire deaths a few decades earlier. At the time of writing this comment, we do not know whether the police vehicle in this incident was or was not a Crown Victoria.
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