Florida, which lost eight officers in 2006, marked its first death this year with the shooting of a Florida Highway Patrol officer in Highlands County last month.

Hernando County’s only officer killed was in 1978, when Deputy Lonnie Coburn was shot during a robbery in Ridge Manor.

Brooksville Police had a close call in 1998, when retired Capt. Terry Chapman was shot in the torso after he stopped to help a man changing a tire.

“Thank God he didn’t have a date with death that day,” said Police Chief Ed Tincher. “It was close enough as it was.”

Officers don’t dwell on mortality when they go to work, Tincher said, but it’s never far from the mind.

Traffic accidents is the leading cause, with 73 officers dying from car, bicycle and motorcycle crashes and officers hit by vehicles, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Although traffic accidents are up 16 percent from 2005, shooting deaths dropped nine percent in 2006 to 54.

Last year’s figures strengthen a 30-year historical trend, which shows traffic accident deaths jumping by 40 percent and shooting deaths declining by roughly the same rate, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

On the job illnesses, such as heat stroke and heart attacks, claimed 18 officers, aircraft crashes 3, beatings 1 and stabbings 1. Five of the officers killed in 2006 were women.

Tincher clearly remembers staring down the barrel of .22 revolver held by a fugitive he was sent to arrest.

The suspect, Tommy Lee, was sitting on the porch with his brothers and whipped out the gun when he saw Tincher coming. He had a clear shot, but one brother shoved him so Lee shot his brother in the back, Tincher said.

The police chief has also had a bullet whiz by head, although the shot wasn’t intended for him. “It was kind of cold and sobering,” Tincher said.

In 1998, Chapman was on patrol at Brook Villas Apartments when he saw a young man changing a tire. He stopped to help out, unaware three men were waiting in the woods to ambush the tire changer. Shots rang out and Chapman was hit in the side.

The bullet that entered into his chest and lodged near his spine was never removed.

On Jan. 12, FHP Sgt. Nicholas Sottile was shot in the chest during a traffic stop in Highlands County, but he was able to call for help. He died an hour later at Florida Hospital Lake Placid, and his assailants were caught the following morning after a massive manhunt.

Tampa Police Detective Juan Serrano was killed Feb. 26, 2006, when the suspect ran a red light and struck his department vehicle. Serrano served as Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio’s executive protection officer and was returning from a function the mayor attended.