Trooper hit, killed by car in Alachua County

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was killed Saturday evening after being hit by a car in north Florida.

Sgt. William Trampass Bishop, a 30-year veteran with the department, was hit while outside his patrol car in Alachua County, officials said.

Deputies with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office responded to a crash on southbound Interstate 75 about 6:30 p.m. and handed it off to troopers, said Chris Sims, a spokesman for the Sheriff ’s Office.

Shortly after deputies left, the Sheriff’s Office started getting multiple calls that a trooper had been hit by a vehicle while investigating the crash, Sims said.

Deputies went back and saw the trooper was pinned under a Ford Fusion.

“They pulled him out from under the vehicle and they rendered as much aid as they could” until paramedics responded and took him to an area hospital, Sims said.

The crash closed the interstate for several hours.

A statement was sent late Saturday from the highway patrol and Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, explaining that everyone was grieving with Bishop’s wife, son and family during this “horrific time,” adding he was a model trooper who “put the well-being of those he serves above his own to keep Florida roadways safe.”

Florida enacted a Move Over law in 2002, which requires drivers to move over one lane or slow down to 20 mph below the speed limit when passing law enforcement, emergency workers and tow-truck drivers.

“This is a tragedy that highlights the risks that FHP troopers encounter every day as they serve our state,” said both FHP and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles in a statement.