They say the two most dangerous activities for a cop are traffic stops and domestic dispute calls.  The latter makes sense because cops are walking into a volatile and unknown situation.

Handing someone a traffic ticket shouldn’t get you killed, but that’s exactly what happened to Officer Vincent Roy on Thursday, December 1, 2011.

It was just a routine traffic stop during the day on a clear stretch of Highway 1389, about 100 kilometres east of Montreal where  a vehicle apparently lost control and hit the police cruiser, then Vincent Roy.

He died at the scene.

“We’re still conducting interviews, we want to know what happened,” said spokesman Louis-Philippe Ruel. “If some witnesses can help us, that’s something we’re looking for to shed light on this to make sure that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”

“It seemed that the truck actually left its lane, went onto the shoulder of the road. this is where the first impact happened. the impact with the patrol car,” said Ruel.

Vincent Roy was new to the Bromont Police Department.  He’d recently returned to his home town and joined the police force after serving with the RCMP in Alberta for the past year and a half.

Bromont is a small community of about 6,000 residents.  Like all small communities would be, this town is devastated by the loss of one of their police officers.

“We’ll think of them through the holiday season,” said Marie-Claude Cabana, the acting mayor of Bromont, Quebec.

“We’re sensitive to the fact that it’s terrible to lose a loved one, especially at this time of the year.”

Being a cop is inherently dangerous.  We know that and the men and women that serve in our police forces know that.

Being killed by an oncoming vehicle during a routine traffic stop is just a lousy way for a cop to be sent off to his Maker, not that there are any good ways for cops to die, other than, I suppose, of old age in a rocking chair on the front porch, beer in hand.

:)

Funeral services are tentatively set for next weekend and will, no doubt, have cops from across Canada and the United States in attendance.  Police funerals usually do.

Please send your prayers to Vincent Roy’s wife and children (a 10-year-old-son and 8-year-old daughter) as they come to grips with the loss of their husband and father at a time of year when we should all be celebrating being with our families, not burying the head of the household.

This Christmas and every one for a long time to come will be very difficult for this family, so if you live in the area, please do all you can to help support them through their time of grief this Christmas.

My thoughts and prayers will certainly be with them as they somehow find a way to deal with the loss of Vincent Roy in such a senseless and tragic way.