Officer Gerald E. Dormaier and his partner, Officer Jerry M. Bean, were working Christmas Day on a foggy stretch of U.S. Highway 99 south of Bakersfield when they arrived at the scene of an overturned propane truck.
Dormaier was standing on the center divider and Bean was laying flares when a tanker truck came out of the fog at a high rate of speed, braked and jackknifed near the center divider, striking Dormaier and the patrol car.
The 42-year-old patrol officer was killed instantly. Dormaier, a 14-year CHP veteran, had served in Anaheim, Tejon, Truckee, Buellton and Bakersfield Areas.
