Oklahoma: Michael Overall: Mother wants Oklahoma to remember dead highway patrol trooper

The troopers didn’t have time to knock before a neighbor called Shelley Russell and told her that two Oklahoma Highway Patrol cars were parked in front of the house.

She knew instantly what they were going to say when she opened the door. There was no other reason to come in person. Her son was dead.

About 10 p.m. on the last day of January, Trooper Nicholas Dees used his patrol car to redirect traffic around an overturned semi on Interstate 40 near Shawnee.

Other cars slowed down and moved into the right-hand lane to pass the wreck, but not the Honda Civic driven by 29-year-old Steven Clark, who has since pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.

He was allegedly texting and updating his Facebook status as he sped past the parked patrol car and slammed into two troopers, seriously injuring one and instantly killing Dees.

The state Legislature was already considering a proposal to ban texting while driving, but Dees’ death rallied support for it, especially after sponsors renamed the bill in his honor.

Both his widow and his mother became tireless advocates for passing the new law, and thanks in no small part to their efforts, it took effect Sunday.

But it’s a terrible thing to have a law named after your son, Russell says.

“He had to sacrifice it all to make that happen,” she says, in Tulsa last week for a news conference with the governor. “I’m glad they finally passed it, but believe me: You don’t want a law named after your son. You really don’t.”

Of course, in that sense, she doesn’t want a 5K race named after her son, either. But she’s organizing one — the Trooper Nicholas Dees Memorial Run, to honor him with something that won’t send people to jail, but will send them to college.

Scheduled for Jan. 23 — the day Dees would have turned 31 — the race promises to bring hundreds if not thousands of runners to Durant, where Russell lives nearly three hours south of Tulsa.

She originally hoped to raise $1,000. But the effort has already raked in more than $7,000, with proceeds going toward scholarships for the children of law enforcement officers who are studying criminal justice.

Instead of the local police, Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers will escort the runners.

“It’s going to honor my son and help kids go to college at the same time,” Russell says.

“I think that would make him very proud.”

An avid runner herself, Russell jogs along the sidewalks of Durant almost every day.

“And you know what?” she says. “When I’m out running, I see people all the time texting and driving, even though they know what can happen and know the law is taking effect.

“I just don’t understand it. What can possibly be so important?”