ST. LOUIS — 5 On Your Side is asking questions following growing concerns of officer safety on busy highways.
After losing her husband at the hands of a suspected drunk driver, Officer David Lee's widow wishes city police had more help when they have to respond to crashes. A local police union echoes her sentiments.
"I feel like like someone such as MODOT or another cruiser or patrol car should have a several feet between stopping for an accident. Therefore, the young man possibly could have been slowed down early on before he got to my husband,” Tonya Lee said.
One of the state agencies that works with local police when there are highway crashes is not available to help everyday. The Missouri Department of Transportation's emergency response crews work Monday through Friday. Some are saying that's not enough.
Early Sunday morning, a suspected drunk driver struck and killed Officer David Lee on Interstate 70 while he was responding to a different crash.
"They don't have ample backup a lot of times and I've seen that having to be the one to work those crashes,” said former St. Louis police officer Christian Johnson.
He recalled the time a driver slammed into his police car, while he was responding to a crash also on I-70.
"Close calls like this happen all the time,” he said.
He praises the Missouri Department of Transportation for having emergency response crews that help police on busy highways.
"Making sure the lane is closed behind the police officers, frees up the police officers being able to work the crash, also gives us a buffer space,” Johnson explained.
The only problem, he said, is that they only work weekdays, not on Saturday or Sunday.
"On the weekends, cars are just flying. We have police lights but police lights don't help much,” he added.
So what about more from help from state troopers? Mayor Tishaura Jones' office said it has consistently advocated for a permanent presence of troopers in the city, but said there aren’t enough state patrol officers to do it.
"Whether a trooper would respond an incident on a major highway/interstate within another locality would depend on their availability and location when they learned of it. If they were nearby, they would respond. If out of the area or committed to another incident, the requesting agency would likely have to ask for a trooper to respond,” said Capt. Scott White with Missouri State High Patrol.
"We need all hands on deck…We need the Missouri Department of Transportation to be able to help (and) Highway Patrol able to help…There needs to be at least, the minimum, 3 to 4 officers to help slow traffic down before getting to the actual accident,” said Sgt. Donny Walters with the Ethical Society of Police.
"Thoughts and prayers are great. We need action. We need to do something,” Johnson said.
The Mayor's office says because there aren’t enough troopers, they're doing what they can — like engaging in periodic joint missions with city, county, and state police along I-70.
While MODOT doesn't have emergency crews on the roads on weekends, it does have a transportation management center monitoring road conditions 24/7.