TRUCKEE (AP) — Dozens of law enforcement cruisers and officers on motorcycles joined a 120-mile funeral ride along Interstate 80 from Reno to Roseville, California on Wednesday for a CHP patrolman who was killed in the line of duty.
Officer Nathan Taylor, 35, of Gold Run, California, died at a Reno hospital late Sunday, a day after he was struck by a car while directing traffic on Interstate 80 during a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada. He was married and had three young sons.
Fire trucks flashed their lights on overpasses in downtown Reno as the procession began the trek over Donner Pass near the site where Taylor was hit outside Truckee, California.
Edward Tagliano, 62, a disabled Vietnam veteran, showed up an hour early to watch the convoy depart from the Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office next to Renown Medical Center.
“I’m paying my respects,” Tagliano said. “I feel sorry he lost his life in the line of duty. It’s very sad.”
California police units from Truckee and Auburn, California, joined the procession along with personnel from the CHP, Nevada Highway Patrol, Washoe County sheriff’s department and Reno and Sparks police.
Taylor had served on the CHP for nearly six years. He was hit by an out-of-control Nissan Pathfinder as heavy snow fell on the mountain interstate north of Lake Tahoe that connects Reno to Sacramento, California.
The weather was so that bad emergency personnel had to scuttle plans to transport Taylor by helicopter and instead took him about 30 miles to Reno in an ambulance. He died after undergoing surgery.