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Police train to stay safe behind the wheel

LAWRENCE, Ind. (WISH) – The Lawrence Police Department held it’s annual emergency vehicle operations training on Thursday.

Every year each officer is put through the course to help them train for situations behind the wheel of their police vehicles.

The parking lot was filled with orange cones, each one designed to represent lanes and sharp turns.

“It’s one of our state mandated training required by the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board.” Sgt. Tom Reuss said. “Accidents for us are a yearly event, that’s why we try to limit them as much as we possibly can.”

In fact, the only police officer to die in the line of duty in Lawrence, died in a crash.

Officer Craig Herbert was killed when a stolen mini van slammed into his patrol car during a high speed chase back in 2005.

“From here it just looks like a sea of orange cones and once we get inside of it you’ll see there are actually lanes in there, and where officers have been driving through it for the last 4 days,” Sgt. Reuss said about the course.

Sgt. Reuss said police related traffic deaths are more common than most people think. From 2010-2014 there were 684 police officers killed in the line of duty, nationwide. 272 of them were in an automobile crash.