By Ellie Rushing
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — Andy Chan, a Philadelphia Highway Patrol officer who suffered a devastating mind harm in a motorbike crash whereas on his approach to work six years in the past, has died.
Chan, 48, was using by Northeast Philadelphia one night in January 2019 when an aged driver unintentionally struck him on the 3300 block of Rhawn Street. He was thrown about 20 toes, police stated, and was critically injured.
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Chan, a 24-year veteran of the power, was in a protracted coma and was hospitalized for weeks on a ventilator. In the years since, his accidents have required around-the-clock care, with household, buddies, and colleagues within the Philadelphia Police Department usually at his aspect.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 introduced Chan’s demise on Tuesday. The reason behind demise was not instantly clear.
“Andy died a hero and we will always remember and honor his sacrifice,” the union wrote on Facebook.
Chan, a father of three, grew up in Chinatown and had all the time dreamed of being a freeway patrolman. His household recalled how he watched with awe when the leather-clad officers approached his mother and father’ restaurant on their bikes.
He determined, they stated, that will be him in the future.
“That was the only place he strived to be in,” his spouse, Teng, stated years in the past.
After changing into a Philadelphia police officer in 1996, he was first assigned to the thirty ninth District, working as a motorcycle cop. Eight years later, he was promoted to the elite freeway unit.
He took such delight in his work that when he walked into police headquarters, as a substitute of yelling, “Hi,” he would shout, “Highway!”
And even when he met Teng practically twenty years in the past, he launched himself as such: ” I’m Highway.”
Chan and his accomplice, Kyle Cross, have been among the many first officers who responded to the Amtrak crash in 2015 that left eight folks useless and practically 200 injured. Cross, in an earlier interview, recalled how Chan saved his composure as he sought to rescue survivors from the wreckage.
“What I remember from Andy was his poise — he stayed so calm, he really just led the way,” Cross recalled. “I followed his lead.”
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, in an e-mail to the division Tuesday morning, described Chan as “larger than life, not because of what he did, but because of who he was.”
“He was the kind of officer whose reputation reached every corner of this Department and City; not because he sought attention, but because his work, his character, and his heart made him impossible to forget. Andy represented the very best of who we are and what we aspire to be: skilled, humble, kind, and unfailingly courageous,” Bethel wrote.
“Andy,” he stated, “will forever remind us of why this work matters.”
Funeral preparations haven’t been introduced.
Since Chan was injured, police and neighborhood members have gathered every December to help his household and lift cash for his restoration. Supporters will proceed to assemble in his honor this yr, on Dec. 12 at Craft Hall at 4 p.m., for the sixth annual Andy Chan Block Party.
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