Trooper killed directing fair traffic - Richmond Times Dispatch

A Virginia State Police trooper from Southwest Virginia was struck and killed while directing traffic outside the State Fair of Virginia, officials said Saturday.

Trooper Andrew D. Fox, 27, a Tazewell native assigned to Pulaski County, was on special assignment working traffic control at the fair when he was hit by a sport-utility vehicle Friday night, said state police spokesman Sgt. Thomas J. Molnar.

The crash occurred just before 10 p.m. on state Route 30 at Theme Park Way as Fox and other troopers were directing traffic outside the fair, as they have since the annual event moved to its current location at Meadow Event Park three years ago, Molnar said.

Traffic leaving the fair and nearby Kings Dominion was heavy, he said. Traffic lights were blinking yellow and police car lights were flashing blue; Fox was wearing a reflective safety vest and using a flashlight with an illuminated baton.

The 1992 Jeep Cherokee that struck Fox was eastbound on Route 30, having come from Interstate 95. The vehicle came to rest on top of him. Other troopers and passers-by lifted the SUV off Fox, and administered emergency first aid. He was transported to VCU Medical Center, where he died.

Neither the female driver nor her juvenile passenger was injured. The driver is a resident of Doswell, although police have not released the names of the vehicle's occupants. Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, Molnar said. No charges have been filed as an investigation is under way.

"Any time you lose someone in the line of duty, it affects everybody tremendously," said Molnar, choking back tears at a news conference at state police headquarters in Richmond. "We come out here every day to do our jobs to provide public safety, and that's always in the back of our minds: Are we going to get home … to our families?"

A graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in agricultural sciences, Fox was a former police officer in the town of Tazewell. He graduated from Virginia State Police Academy in 2007 and was assigned to Northern Virginia. He returned to his native Southwest Virginia last May, taking an assignment in Pulaski County. He also served as a member of the volunteer fire department in Draper, a small community in the county.

"No finer person," said Sgt. Dirk Compton, his supervisor in Pulaski. "A really diligent guy. Really worked hard."

Compton said Fox was known to pull up behind a stranded motorist with a flat tire and instead of calling a tow truck he would get out of his car and change the tire himself.

"He wrote a lot of tickets," Compton said in a phone interview Saturday night. "He was very safety-conscious, making sure he did his job. But if he saw you in a bad fix, he'd be the first one to stop and help you."

Fox loved to farm, and he and his wife lived on a farm they managed for an older landowner, said Compton, noting how excited the couple was to come home to rural Southwest Virginia after several years in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

"This is shocking to us," Compton said. "You just don't get killed when you go the State Fair. It's just awful."

Fox is survived by his wife, parents, a sister and a stepbrother. His is the 58th line-of-duty death for the Virginia State Police, and the first since June 2011.

In a statement, Col. W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police superintendent, called Fox's death "a tremendous loss" and said the trooper had served Virginia "with genuine valor and pride."

Molnar said motorists must approach flashing lights with great care.

"Motorists need to understand that these troopers are exposed to vehicular traffic," he said. "That's why there are blue lights and flashing traffic lights to warn motorists something is there. They should be an indicator to motorists that they need to slow down."