Police search for witness after pedestrian killed on Walpole Island First Nation
Lambton honour three OPP officers killed on the job
February 13, 2015
Three police officers who lost their lives while on duty will be honoured by Lambton County.
Councilors have agreed to name three bridges named after the officers.
OPP Const. William Rodgers was killed February 25, 1970 in a blinding snowstorm. He’d been at the scene of an accident on what is now Egermont Road. He was directing traffic around the accident while two people stood with him.
But in a whiteout, a car couldn’t avoid the trio and plowed into them killing them all. Harold Coffin, who is a OPP officer working at the Point Edward Casino asked council to dedicate the Oil Heritage Road 402 overpass to Rodgers.
He also asked that the Forest Road overpass be renamed in honour of OPP Const. Randy Chatterson and the bridge over the Ausable River just outside of Grand Bend be named for OPP Const. Gary MacDonald.
The pair was on night shift as partners May 2, 1975 when they were involved in a head-on collision with a transport truck. The truck dragged the cruiser down the highway, the officers were killed and the cruiser was demolished.
Now that the county has agreed to the renaming, the Ministry of Transportation will pick up all the costs of the new signs to honour the fallen officers.
Coffin hopes to have dedication ceremonies for the bridges this summer.
In Ontario, 58 bridges have been renamed in honour of officers killed on the job.
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