The Florida Highway Patrol is mourning the death of a trooper killed in a crash on the 408 in Orlando this morning.
31-year-old Tracy Vickers was on his way home at about 5:50 a.m. from his midnight shift. He was a Navy veteran.
FHP Colonel Gene Spaulding is asking for prayers for Vickers’ family.
“We’re here to do the very best job that we can do to memorialize his dedication and his service to the state, but at the end of the day it was their service--we’ve got some arrangements to make this week--and we’re here to serve them now for allowing him to serve us.”
Spaulding said it’s too soon to know what caused the crash. Officials are still in early phases of the investigation and may not have the full report for weeks or even months.
Vickers was pronounced dead at the scene. Law enforcement officers escorted his body to the Orange County medical examiner’s office. No one else was injured.
Spaulding said Vickers was part of a so-called quick-reaction force, poised to respond on very short notice to emergencies like Hurricane Michael last year in the panhandle.
“These guys have to pack up and be prepared to be gone for six weeks, live in sometimes very poor conditions with no electricity, no running water--that was the guy he was. Did it willingly and did it passionately and did a phenomenal job for us.”
Spaulding called him a trooper’s trooper and a mentor. He said Vickers was the 48th Florida Highway Patrol trooper to die in the line of duty.