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Cape interchange dedicated to disabled state trooper

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 23, 2009 05:56 PM

By Jazmine Ulloa, Globe Correspondent

She was the state trooper with blond hair and a big smile who stood at the Exit 7 interchange off Route 6 in Yarmouth nearly every morning.

Trooper Engelhardt before the accident

Though many did not personally know Trooper Ellen. E. Engelhardt, they saw her nearly every day for about seven years, directing traffic and waving to people on their way to work at the bottom of the exit until 2003, when she was severely injured by a drunk driver. At a ceremony held today at the Massachusetts Highway Department yard in Yarmouth, state police and officials dedicated the interchange in her honor.

"Now every trooper that comes in will see her plaque and be able to hear her story," said Rick Brown, president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts.

Engelhardt, now 56, suffered debilitating injuries in July 2003, when a vehicle operated by a drunk driver slammed into her parked cruiser at nearly 100 miles per hour on Route 25 in Wareham. She is in a permanent vegetative state at Middleboro Skilled Nursing and Specialized Center, said David Procopio, a state police spokesman.

About 200 friends and family members attended the ceremony for Engelhardt, including all her station commanders and all the troopers who had worked with her on her shift. Lieutenant Robert Knott, commander of the South Yarmouth barracks, and other station commanders presented Engelhardt's sister, Laura Tedeman, with the badge she wore the night she was injured.

"Trooper Engelhardt defined the role of a Massachusetts State Trooper, and exemplified the very best in our traditions and values,” Colonel Mark F. Delaney, superintendent of the force, said in a statement.

Representative Cleon H. Turner, a Dennis Democrat who filed the legislation naming the interchange at the request of people in the community, also spoke at the event and said the dedication "was necessary to recognize that state and local police officers face such potential dangers on a daily basis."

Engelhardt had been a trooper for 22 years when she was injured and was one of the first women to serve on the force, Brown said. Only 20 other women served as troopers when she got the job, he said.

On most nights, Engelhardt worked the midnight shift to be able to spend time with her family during the day, Knott said. She began working overtime in the mornings after 1996, when troopers were needed to direct traffic at the exit, said her former barracks commander, Harry Craig. Engelhardt worked her entire life in Yarmouth but was filling in on a patrol on Route 25 in Wareham the night of her injury.

William P. Senne of Wayland was 18 when he drove his Volvo into the rear end of Engelhardt's cruiser. He was charged with drunk driving, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.

Englehardt's cruiser had been struck by another drunk driver six months prior to the crash that debilitated her. She had just recovered and gotten back to work when the Wareham crash happened, said Senate president Therese Murray, who spoke at Engelhardt's ceremony.

"Everybody knew her," Murray said. "Everybody misses her."