DOT ‘HERO' operator struck and killed doing job that worried mother

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By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When he was in the fourth grade, Spencer Pass told his mother he wanted to be in law enforcement. And since then, Barbara Clark always hoped her son would change his mind.

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A crash on Monday morning killed a state Department of Transportation "HERO" operator on I-85 south of downtown Atlanta.

Georgia Department of Transporta 45-year-old state Department of Transportation "HERO" operator Spencer Pass was killed late Monday morning while assisting a motorist along I-85 south of downtown Atlanta.

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When he told his mother three years ago he wanted to become a "HERO" operator for the state department of transportation, Clark was worried again.

"That's a dangerous job," Clark said she told her son.

"Mother, somebody's got to do it," Pass told his mother.

Monday morning, the 45-year-old Pass was killed while assisting a motorist along I-85 south of downtown Atlanta. Pass, a father of three teenage sons, was the first HERO operator to be killed in the line of duty since the Highway Emergency Response Operator program began 15 years ago.

Pass, of Jonesboro, had worked for the DOT less than three years, Commissioner Vance C. Smith Jr. said.

"As a HERO, Spencer spent long hours, often in hazardous roadside conditions, to keep Georgia’s traveling public safer," Smith said in a statement. "He will be missed."

The crash happened about 10:35 a.m. near the Metropolitan Parkway exit, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

GSP Sgt. Jerome Bowman said Pass had parked his truck behind a disabled Ford Ranger in the emergency lane, and was standing at the left front of the Ranger when a dual-axle Ford F-450 pickup pulling a landscaping trailer sideswiped the HERO truck and the Ranger, then hit Pass.

The Ranger driver, who was standing by the right fender of his truck, jumped to safety, “but the HERO driver was unable to get out of the way and was fatally injured,” Bowman said.

All southbound lanes of I-85 were closed for several hours Monday while troopers investigated the crash. Charges are pending the completion of the investigation, the state patrol said.

In addition to his work as a HERO operator, Pass and his wife of two years, Tracy Dawn Pass, were opening a limo service in Conyers, Clark said. On Saturday, Clark said she told Pass again that his work for the DOT scared her.

"I really don't like that job," Clark said she told her grown son.

“Just pray for me and pray with me," Pass replied. "I’ll be fine.”

Pass, an Atlanta native, has three sons -- ages 17, 18 and 19 -- from a previous marriage, Clark said Monday evening as family and friends gathered at her home. Pass died helping others and he will be remembered for his ability to see the good in people, Clark said.

"He's always been the type to help people," Clark said. "If he was ever angry, I didn't see that in him."

-- Staff photographer John Spink and staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report.