NC state troopers killed on duty to be honored

RALEIGH — The North Carolina Highway Patrol is honoring troopers who have died in the line of duty, including two killed in 2008.

Gov. Beverly Perdue will speak at the memorial ceremony Monday afternoon at the Highway Patrol academy in Raleigh. Perdue also will participate in a wreath-laying at the memorial.

The patrol says 60 troopers have died in the line of duty in the past 80 years.

The patrol was founded in 1929 with a handful of troopers. The patrol now employs 1,813 troopers who patrol 78,000 miles of North Carolina roadway.

Troopers arrested more than 23,000 people last year for driving while impaired, seized $10 million worth of drugs and investigated 1,081 fatal accidents.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)