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Cops are the guys that you don’t want to be talking to if you don’t already know them.  What I’m saying is that chances are if you’re talking to a cop you don’t know, you’ve been pulled over.  This is the part of the police’s job that I dont like.  I personally think its more about revenue generation than keeping the streets safe.

OK.  All that said, I have the utmost respect for the people who potentially put their lives on the line as a matter of employment.  It takes a sense of duty and selflessness to want to be a cop.  And many times, its a very thankless job. 

Here in Phoenix we have motorcycle cops year round.  They have to be some of the most aware riders out there doing what they do where they do it - in traffic.  Its a sad day when a fellow rider and police officer loses his life needlessly.  That’s what happened in Tempe, AZ yesterday.

Tempe officer killed in Loop 101 accident He strikes a railroad tie while riding motorcycle

Sarah Muench and Sean Holstege The Arizona Republic
Sept. 29, 2006 12:00 AM

Officer Kevin L. Weeks, a 28-year-old officer who served in Tempe for seven years in patrol and the traffic bureau, was killed after he struck a railroad tie on Loop 101 at 4:15 a.m. Thursday.
The state Department of Public Safety is looking into how Weeks, called a cop’s cop by his friends, was killed and what part, if any, construction played in the accident.  “Kevin died doing what he loved doing best, serving the public as a motor officer,” Tempe police Chief Ralph Tranter said Thursday afternoon at a press conference. “Today is a sad day for the Tempe Police Department.”

Weeks was southbound on Loop 101 north of Broadway Road on his police motorcycle when the crash occurred. The railroad tie was from light-rail construction.  After the crash, Weeks was able to turn on his radio and call for help, said Sgt. Dan Masters, a Tempe police spokesman. A cement-truck driver witnessed the crash, tried to help Weeks and called 911.  Weeks told the driver to “tell them I’m having problems breathing,” according to Masters said.  Tempe police officers arrived at the scene and stayed with Weeks before he died at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn, Masters said.

Department of Public Safety and light-rail officials would not speculate on any causes of the crash until the investigation is completed.  “Who put these (railroad ties) there? When were they there? That’s what we will be looking at,” he said. The investigation could last up to eight weeks, DPS Sgt. Harold Sanders said.  “Our materials are there because that’s a big part of the light-rail construction project,” said Marty McNeil, spokeswoman for the $1.4 billion light-rail project.

Thursday’s fatal accident is the first related to light rail but the second major accident involving the construction team of Sundt/Stacey Witbeck Joint Venture.  On July 11, a worker was severely burned when a concrete-pumping truck hit a power line, and two more workers suffered minor burns and another was shocked. The accident happened on Washington Street near Priest Drive in Tempe.  It is the only accident on record in five years for the firms teaming up on the Valley’s light-rail project. 

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s worker safety database, Phoenix-based Sundt Construction Inc. has been cited for 12 violations, nine serious, and slapped with $7,700 in proposed fines. Its light-rail partner, California-based Stacey-Witbeck Inc., was imposed $900 for four violations, of which only one was serious.  “That is a very clean record,” said Darrin Perkins, director of Arizona Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “I’m not aware of any complaints on the light-rail project.”  The accident occurred where Sundt/Stacey Witbeck is reconstructing the Apache Boulevard Drive overpass. The existing bridge is too weak to support the weight of light-rail trains.  Since January, crews have been building a replacement and systematically dismantling the old bridge, which has resulted in periodic road closures.  Light-rail officials said they have not determined if they will stop the construction pending the investigation.

Fellow Tempe police officers said Weeks had a passion for police work and had made at least 300 DUI arrests in 2005 and issued 2,100 civil citations, Masters said.  They were dealing with the line-of-duty loss Thursday, the first in nearly 20 years in the department.  Masters said Weeks, who joined Tempe police at age 21, the youngest age to become an officer, had extreme potential to rise to the top at the department.  “The sky was the limit with Kevin,” Masters said.

He was the fifth officer in Tempe police history to die in the line of duty.  “He loved to kid around. He treated everyone like family,” said Officer Bryan Hall, who worked with Weeks and was notified by a dispatcher that Weeks had died. “He was a great person.”  Chandler High Principal Terry Williams was a history teacher when Weeks was a student. He said he remembers the future police officer as “a good kid, a happy kid” whose 1995 yearbook photo “has a big smile and looks like he was trying to grow a mustache.”

On April 30, Rob Targosz, a Gilbert police motorcycle officer and friend of Weeks, was killed in the line of duty in a hit and run in Tempe near the same area as Weeks at Apache Boulevard and Price Road when he was on his way to work.  Five years ago, Weeks, of Chandler, suffered a broken back and fractured face when an impaired driver hit his motorcycle.

Weeks left behind his parents, Alan and Paula Weeks, and his sister, Caryn Davis of Chandler. He was not married.

Its a sad story with a sad ending that could have been avoided.  It will be interesting to see how the responsibility for this event is handled.

Because it doesn’t happen often enough, I just want to say “thanks” to Kevin Weeks for serving the Phoenix area.