Omaha,NE : Omaha tribal police officer who died in crash on may, Monday 29th 2017

A tribal police sergeant was driving on a closed road as he responded to a call and was not wearing his seat belt when he crashed into a crane in a construction zone March 26, according to a recently released report by the Nebraska State Patrol.

Curtis Blackbird, 59, and another Omaha tribal police officer were rushing from Macy, Nebraska, to a disturbance in the nearby village of Walthill when, in darkness and dense fog, Blackbird’s Ford Explorer police vehicle crashed into the crane.

Blackbird died following the crash — a death that reflects the greatest hazard to law enforcement officers. According to the most recent information from the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, traffic-related incidents have been the leading cause of on-duty law enforcement deaths for 15 of the past 20 years. Preliminary data for 2015 indicates that 42 officers died in traffic-related incidents and 35 were killed specifically in automobile crashes that year.

Data on seat belt use wasn’t readily available, but it’s not uncommon for officers to drive unbelted, experts say.

The crash took place about 1:30 a.m. on a stretch of Nebraska Highway 94 that was closed for road construction crews. The section is between U.S. Highways 75 and 77.

The Nebraska State Patrol conducted an in-depth technical investigation of the crash in the weeks afterward. The report was released to The World-Herald following a public records request.

The other officer Blackbird was working with that night was Ben Carrillo. In an April 7 interview with a patrol accident investigator, he described what happened that night.

Blackbird and Carrillo were in Macy about 1:30 that morning, Blackbird in the office and Carrillo on patrol, when they received a report of a disturbance.

The two took Highway 94 to expedite the trip from Macy to Walthill — a distance of roughly 9 miles.

They traveled in separate vehicles, Carrillo ahead of Blackbird. Carrillo said he went around a set of barricades and headed toward Walthill at a speed of 70-80 mph, with Blackbird about a quarter-mile behind him. He slowed to go around a second set of barricades, then sped up to about 60 mph. Visibility was only 30 to 40 yards because of heavy fog.

Carrillo maneuvered around the crane, according to the State Patrol. He got on the radio and tried to warn Blackbird about the crane, but there was no response.

He turned around and went back and found Blackbird in his wrecked vehicle, unrestrained and unresponsive. The vehicle caught fire, so Carrillo pulled Blackbird out and away from it, and started CPR. He also was concerned that he and Blackbird would be hit by responding vehicles because the fog was so thick.

“Officer Carrillo also stated that it was their fault — they knew the road was closed and they never should have been on it. Officer Carrillo stated he was unsure how many times Sgt. Blackbird had been on the road since it was closed ... and believes Sgt. Blackbird just got disoriented in the fog and lost track of how far he traveled, not realizing he was in the construction zone.”

The report attributes Blackbird’s death to his not heeding the warning signs for the closed road, his inability to avoid hitting the crane, and the fact that he was not using his seat belt.

Blackbird died on the way to the hospital.

The patrol investigator found four tire marks just east of the impact, indicating that Blackbird had tried to avoid a crash. The crane, an American Crane 5299, had been parked there since March 21, a construction company official told the patrol.


Source :
Omaha tribal police officer who died in crash wasn’t belted in