introduced<\/a> blocker trucks in 2023 after Officer Mitchell Penton was killed in 2021 while responding to a freeway crash. Before deploying dedicated blocker units, officers relied on patrol cars or fire apparatus to redirect traffic, often tying up those resources for extended periods and risking costly damage if vehicles were hit.<\/p>\n\u201cWe are deeply grateful to QuikTrip for this generous donation to protect our first responders at accident scenes,\u201d said Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert. \u201cThe company has a long history of supporting public safety, and this donation further elevates their commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since launching the blocker truck program, Dallas police have deployed the units to more than 1,200 incidents. The trucks respond multiple times each week and have absorbed the impact of five collisions over the past two years, preventing injuries to officers and bystanders.<\/p>\n
The four additional units will expand the existing fleet, giving every patrol division that covers a freeway access to a dedicated blocker truck.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see one of these blocker trucks at a crash site, slow down and give our first responders plenty of space to work,\u201d said Dallas Police Chief Daniel C. Comeaux. \u201cIt is the law, and it will help keep our first responders safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police reminded drivers of Texas\u2019 Move Over or Slow Down law. When an emergency vehicle displays flashing lights, motorists must change lanes when possible or reduce speed by 20 mph below the posted limit, or to 5 mph if the speed limit is 25 mph or lower. Violators face fines of up to $1,250 for a first offense.<\/p>\n
Last year, QuikTrip also funded construction of a container-based Reality Based Training Village at the Dallas Police Academy and donated more than $200,000 to Assist The Officer, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance and counseling to officers and their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QuikTrip funded the purchase of four new blocker trucks for the Dallas Police Department, and the Dallas City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,105,104,103,4081,6915,66217],"class_list":["post-161647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-city-council","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-dallas-police-department","tag-first-responders","tag-quiktrip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}