Trooper of the Year aims to show compassion on the job

S.C. Highway Patrol Senior Trooper Owens Horton feels like he’s done his job when, by the end of the day, he’s kept people safe from DUI-related collisions.

“We want people to know the patrol does have compassion,” said Horton, who lives in Lake City and works in Clarendon and Sumter counties.

The state’s 2008 trooper of the year showed the patrol’s compassionate side after he responded last year to a felony driving under the influence collision that killed a 14-year-old New York girl and injured her family members.

To this day, he still keeps a picture of the girl in his car and stays in contact with her family, he said.

“It’s really put a fire in me to get these intoxicated people off the road,” he said of the incident.

Horton got the call early on the morning of April 12, 2008, about a motorist driving north in the southbound lane of Interstate 95, and he was about 30 miles away, he said.

“You get a call like that, you’ve got to respond quick,” he said.

The driver had sideswiped two other vehicles, but didn’t stop, Horton said.

By the time he arrived where the fatal crash had occurred, several cars had been involved and debris was scattered over the road, he said.

He recalled that the family was going to Walt Disney World, in Orlando, and that the father had borrowed a minivan, just “trying to do the right thing for his family.”

But a man’s excitement to take his family on vacation had turned to desperation when he couldn’t find his daughter after the van was struck by the drunken driver.

Horton paused before the difficult moment when he recalled the most devastating detail of those early morning hours. The girl, who was thrown from the minivan, died at the scene.

He did everything he could for her before paramedics arrived and tried to keep the family calm — the girl’s mother also lost one of her legs as a result of the accident, he said.

The senior trooper worked into the following afternoon — from 4:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. — and helped build a case that led to a 25-year prison sentence for the man charged with felony DUI.

Nonetheless, he said he can’t take all the credit because he worked with sergeants to secure what he found to be a stiff penalty.

He also said he feels for the other victims in the case — the seven children who were being supported by their father, who’s now behind bars.

Horton shares that story to show people “it’s not worth getting yourself in that kind of position,” he said.

Since finishing patrol school in 2005, Horton has been recognized for making the highest number of drug and DUI arrests for two years straight. He’s also been assigned to the troop’s Fatality Reduction Operation Safety Team.

Last year, he arrested 41 people for driving under the influence and made 1,672 cases, including 38 drug arrests, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.

When the statewide trooper of the year was announced at a June 16 ceremony, it was humbling and a “shock,” Horton said.

“My wife said my face turned red,” he said.

He and his wife, Tammy, have two children, Tyler and Logan.

“They probably sacrifice more (because of) me being gone, and it means a lot when you’ve got family who support you and stand behind you and realize what you’re trying to do out there,” he said.

Before his statewide honor, he was recognized for the past two years as the trooper of the year for his post. He also received the Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Award for his troop in 2007, he said.

His name will be added to the plaque at the state Department of Safety’s headquarters, in Blythewood. It will be there along with the name of Cpl. Shay McKenzie of Lake City, the 2004 statewide trooper of the year, who works with the same troop and post as Horton.

Horton hopes the plaque is something his grandchildren will see and be proud of, he said.

The highway patrol already has family connections for him; his uncle, Charles Horton, served as a trooper from 1973 to 1983, he said.

Horton said he “felt like it was my calling” instead of staying with his job at a stainless steel plant, “just standing in one spot doing the same thing every day.”

Horton has lived most of his life in Turbeville, he said. He graduated in 1992 from East Clarendon High School and from Florence-Darlington Technical College in 1994.

Horton served in the U.S. Navy from 1992 to 1996 and worked with the Olanta Police Department for 1½ years before joining the highway patrol.