Emergency Service workers

are to be respected and thanked right now. 
I had a brief interaction with a member of the police force last week. It isn't something I can write about here (and no, I hadn't done anything wrong). She was brisk, sensible and courteous. I would have wanted her on my side in her area of expertise - domestic violence.
On Saturday afternoon she was killed in a road traffic accident. 
I heard multiple emergency service vehicles leave the station situated on the busy road not too far from here. A fire truck and two ambulances left in quick succession. In the distance I could hear the police sirens too - as they were diverted to the scene.
It occurred at an intersection which has been the scene of far too many accidents. The roads going in both directions are both very busy. 
I very occasionally need to go that far and I do not like using that intersection at all. Even with the pedestrian lights, which I use, it is not a place where I feel safe. Not so long ago Middle Cat and I were out together and went through the intersection - after Middle Cat had given way to a speeding ambulance escorted by a police car. The car behind us was not impressed that Middle Cat had done the right thing and given way.  The male driver got some very dirty looks from people around him for his misuse of his horn. 
I thought of all this yesterday when I saw the news reported in the state newspaper. I thought of the emergency service workers who had to go and face the appalling scene - two people dead, two more injured, the debris strewn across the road that needed to be photographed, the cars that needed to be loaded and hauled away for examination, the need to divert traffic and all the hours there and still to come.  
All of that has had to go on while still caring for the rest of the community, while still trying to sort out all the extra issues relating to the need for people to "stay at home".   
I didn't know that police officer. I met her for nothing more than a few minutes.  She wasn't driving the car in which she died - her husband was. He's alive and having to live with what has happened. Nobody is saying he is at fault. It seems the other car - which because airborne on impact - must have been going at a great speed.Was the driver "just in a hurry to get somewhere"?
All I can say right now is that respect for the road rules and for the work of our emergency service workers would have prevented this. The state would not have lost someone who was, from all accounts, passionate about helping others.
I feel for those who depended on the work this woman did and her knowledge and experience. Domestic violence victims have lost a strong advocate. We are all the poorer for that.