A Cleveland, Ohio law enforcement officer died Tuesday morning, Jan. 24, after being struck by a vehicle in a hit-skip accident.
The incident, which happened at 6:00 a.m. on Interstate 90, occurred while Officer David Fahey was directing traffic due to an earlier fatal accident involving a fire truck, according to Cleveland.com.
“Early this morning, the division of police and also the city lost a great public servant, Officer David Fahey,” said Calvin Williams, Cleveland police chief at a news conference. “He lost his life while serving the city. We’re going to ask for help in finding the person that did this.”
The Cleveland Police Department reports the car who hit Officer Fahey likely sustained severe front-end damage as a result. A suspect was apprehended around noon the same day along with the car in question.
“Officer Fahey was out there protecting the city and doing his job, and he’s not going home to his family,” Williams said.
Between 2006 and 2015, struck-by incidents involving vehicles were the 4th highest cause of death among law enforcement officers behind shootings, automobile crashes and job-related illnesses, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF).
Combining the total number of struck-by vehicle incidents and automobile crashes shows overall traffic-related incidents as the leading cause of deaths among police officers, and that number continues to increase year-over-year.
The NLEOMF, which compiles police officer fatality data in real time, noted a 6 percent increase in traffic-related fatalities from 2014 to 2015. Of the 52 total deaths in 2015, 35 law enforcement officers died in automobile crashes, 11 were struck outside of their vehicles and six were killed in motorcycle accidents, according to the organization.