Off-duty officers face danger escorting funerals

While escorting a routine funeral procession, off-duty IUPD Lt. Tom Lee suffered what he and his employers believe to be some not-so-routine injuries.\n"I've had two surgeries already," he said. "Chances are, in the \nbest-case scenario, I'll have two additional surgeries. Worst-case: I'll need four."\nLee escorts funeral processions on a motorcycle for Regal Funeral Escort, Inc., a Bloomington-based business that hires full-time or retired police officers to stop traffic so that a funeral procession can pass through. But because of an accident during a procession on the morning of Feb. 7, Lee said he is now "pretty much immobile" for six weeks.\n"I got home from the hospital on Sunday, and I'm pretty much at the mercy of (my brother-in-law)," he said. "If you saw this thing on my leg, you would be really surprised that there were no broken bones."\nDespite the severity of Lee's accident, Todd Durnil, owner of Regal Funeral Escort, inc., said he believes his employees are still safe.\n"We've been in business for almost four years, and this is our first accident of any significance," said Durnil, who also works full-time as an Indiana State Trooper. "We've gone a long way without anything happening. We feel the potential for something happening is outweighed by what the service does."\nWhile at the rear of a procession on Rogers Street, north of 11th Street, Lee turned his lights and sirens on, passed the procession to approach the intersection and crashed his 2004 Road King motorcycle into another vehicle, said Bloomington Police Department Det. Sgt. David Drake, reading from the police report.\n"I hit a vehicle, but I'm not sure how," Lee said.\nAccording to the report, he had lost control while driving over a manhole cover, striking a stopped Dodge Caravan. Although Lee could not remember the event well enough to confirm this, he said the statement is consistent with what he does remember. Drake said he flipped his motorcycle several times before hitting the vehicle.\nWhile Lee said his helmet and suit protected him from any injuries due to contact with the road, his run-in with the van caused injuries that will keep him at home for months. The accident report listed injuries to his knee, foot and lower leg.\n"Every ligament and tendon that I have on my right knee is ripped off," he said.\nDurnil said that aside from a couple of instances of parked, off-duty motorcycles being backed into by other vehicles, Regal Funeral Escort had been accident-free until last week.\nBy law, funeral processions in Indiana are allowed to claim the right-of-way with sirens and flashing lights, and many choose to do this by hiring escort services. Lee said that typically, in a procession, employees "leap-frog" ahead to an intersection to stop any traffic that might interrupt. Regal serves funeral homes in Bloomington, Spencer, Elletsville and Martinsville. \n"Ironically, the idea is that it provides additional safety on the way to the final place of disposition," said Art Sater, one of the owners of Allen Funeral Home, which contracted Regal for the procession in which Lee was injured. "Tom Lee just so happened to be involved in an accident; it was purely an accident. I certainly wouldn't go on a funeral procession without them now."\nSater said that in his 35 years in the funeral home business, he can only recall two significant accidents.\nDurnil said his company uses motorcycles, rather than cars, because they can more easily maneuver around traffic. The idea, he said, is safety.\n"The benefit of a motorcycle over a car is that the motorcycle can move from one intersection to the next without causing a congestion or a hazard," he said. "The downside is that for that maneuverability, you forfeit some of the protection you would have in a car."\nLee said that the danger involved with passing vehicles at high speeds on motorcycles is greatly reduced because most civilians know they need to pull over when they hear the sirens.\n"Indiana law requires that traffic yield to funeral processions, and for the most part, since people have gotten used to the motorcycles around town, they normally see it and they normally yield," Lee said. "It's just that sometimes people aren't used to it."\nDespite the high speeds and vulnerability of motorcycles, Lee called his current situation "an exception rather than the rule."\n"Generally speaking, it is pretty safe," he said. "The whole idea is to make the trip to the cemetery better for the family. You know they've got enough other stresses and things to worry about without having to worry about fighting traffic."\nLee plans to return to both of his jobs after he heals from his series of surgeries, which he said could take months.