Citizen Honored for Saving State Trooper’s Life

 

RALEIGH - A nursing student from Kill Devil Hills was made an Honorary Member of the Highway Patrol in a ceremony August 23rd in Raleigh. Vincent Hannon III was honored for the assistance he gave Trooper Joe Hofmann when the trooper was critically injured in a traffic accident on U.S. 17 on October 2, 2002.

Trooper Hofmann was escorting an oversized mobile home when he was hit head-on by a tractor trailer. Hannon was one of the first people to arrive on the scene. He checked the trooper, realized he was not breathing and tilted his head back to open the airway. Emergency personnel arrived and transported Trooper Hofmann to Pitt Memorial Hospital. Doctors later said that Hannon’s actions saved the trooper’s life.

Naming someone an Honorary Trooper is rare in the Highway Patrol’s 75 year history; fewer than two dozen people have received the honor. Hannon also received a Certificate of Appreciation and a letter from Gov. Mike Easley, noting that Hannon, “exemplifies the best of the human spirit.”

Participating in the ceremony were the Hofmann and Hannon families, Highway Patrol commander Colonel Fletcher Clay, and Bryan Beatty, Secretary of the Department of Crime Control & Public Safety.