By Flint McColgan
Source Boston Herald
Law enforcement and first responders of all stripes came out in droves Saturday afternoon to pay their respects to Massachusetts State Police Trooper Tamar Bucci, who died after her cruiser was hit by a tanker on I-93 late Thursday night.
"She was an outstanding trooper," Lt. Marion Fletcher, the station commander of the State Police Medford barracks, where Bucci served the last month of her two-year career with the agency, told the Herald. "It's a hard shift for anyone, the midnight shift."
Bucci, 34, of Andover, was attempting to assist a driver with a disabled vehicle on Interstate 93 northbound in Stoneham when her Police Interceptor Utility cruiser was struck by a tanker tractor-trailer at about 11:45 p.m., according to the state police.
Two unidentified "Good Samaritans" pulled her from the cruiser and a responding Stoneham Police officer performed emergency first aid, state police have said. She was transported from the scene to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she was pronounced dead.
Bucci was a 2020 graduate of the 85th Recruit Training Troop and served in the Brookfield Barracks before her transfer to Medford in late January. After graduating from Middlesex Community College she worked as a personal trainer and in security at Encore Casino.
Fletcher gave her brief, emotional comments following the procession that transported Bucci's body from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Albany Street in Boston to Barile Funeral Home on Main Street in Stoneham.
State troopers, Boston Police and Boston firefighters lined Albany Street from East Concord Street to Frontage Road at 3 p.m. Saturday as State Police motorcycle units led a long procession of state trooper vehicles and the Barile hearse on their way toward I-93 north and Stoneham.
Firefighters of local agencies flew gigantic U.S. flags from overpasses along the interstate. Main Street in Stoneham was cut off by apparatus from the Stoneham and Woburn Fire Departments with their own giant flag shortly before North Border Street.
From there, firefighters and troopers stood at attention with their emergency vehicle lights flashing on both sides of the road all the way past Middle Street.
The display was an emotional one for many, with one man who said his niece is a trooper wiping tears from his eyes as the troopers marched back to their cruisers at around 3:30 p.m.
"God's blessings, Trooper," the State Police tweeted following the event. "You laid down your life in an act of service to another. No greater love can one show than that."
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