By Ellie Rushing
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — Andy Chan, a Philadelphia Highway Patrol officer who suffered a devastating mind damage in a bike crash whereas on his approach to work six years in the past, has died.
Chan, 48, was using by way of 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 ft, police stated, and was critically injured.
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Chan, a 24-year veteran of the power, was in a chronic coma and was hospitalized for weeks on a ventilator. In the years since, his accidents have required around-the-clock care, with household, associates, and colleagues within the Philadelphia Police Department often 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’ll all the time bear in mind 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 at some point.
“That was the one place he strived to be in,” his spouse, Teng, stated years in the past.
After turning into a Philadelphia police officer in 1996, he was first assigned to the thirty ninth District, working as a motorbike cop. Eight years later, he was promoted to the elite freeway unit.
He took such satisfaction 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 almost 20 years in the past, he launched himself as such: ” I’m Highway.”
Chan and his accomplice, Kyle Cross, had been among the many first officers who responded to the Amtrak crash in 2015 that left eight folks useless and almost 200 injured. Cross, in an earlier interview, recalled how Chan saved his composure as he sought to rescue survivors from the wreckage.
“What I bear in mind from Andy was his poise — he stayed so calm, he actually simply led the way in which,” Cross recalled. “I adopted his lead.”
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, in an electronic mail to the division Tuesday morning, described Chan as “bigger than life, not due to what he did, however due to who he was.”
“He was the type of officer whose popularity reached each nook of this Department and City; not as a result of he sought consideration, however as a result of his work, his character, and his coronary heart made him unimaginable to neglect. Andy represented the easiest of who we’re and what we aspire to be: expert, humble, form, and unfailingly brave,” Bethel wrote.
“Andy,” he stated, “will perpetually remind us of why this work issues.”
Funeral preparations haven’t been introduced.
Since Chan was injured, police and group members have gathered every December to assist his household and lift cash for his restoration. Supporters will proceed to collect 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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