Oklahoma Highway Patrol is asking that on this day we remember Trooper Nicholas Dees, aged 30, who died on January 31, 2015. He had joined the OHP less than two years earlier, in 2013.
On the date in question, Trooper Dees and Trooper Keith Burch had been dispatched to investigate a collision involving a tractor-trailer on Interstate 40 in Seminole County near the Pottawatomie County line.
While both Troopers were standing outside their patrol units investigating the collision, a driver failed to yield to their warning lights, traveled into the collision scene and struck both Troopers. Trooper Dees died instantly. Trooper Burch received serious injuries.
Steven Clark, the driver responsible for the collision which killed Trooper Dees, subsequently pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the case and admitted that he had been updating his Facebook page moments before the crash. In December 2015, he was sentenced to five years in prison and seven years probation.
A [crash] investigator testified that Clark sent and received nearly 200 texts and cell phone data transfers in the two hours leading up to the [collision].
Brandi Dees, Nicholas’ wife, said: “I had to try to explaining to a crying 2-year-old why she can’t see her dad again and watch her sit and hold his picture in her hands and ask why we can’t go get him. I watched an 8-year-old cry because she doesn’t have a daddy to take to the daddy-daughter dance…”
SOURCES:
- Oklahoma Highway patrol
- KFOR.com (Video) Dec. 17, 2015
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