MORRIS – State Trooper Jill E. Mattice, 31, was killed in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer at about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday on state Route 23 in the Town of Morris.
State Police investigators said Mattice was traveling east on Rt. 23 when she was involved in a collision with a westbound tractor trailer being operated by F.M. Saggese, 33, of West Oneonta.
Police have not released any further information about the accident and have referred all questions regarding the incident to a press conference scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Troop C Headquarters in Sidney.
Mattice was a six and a half year veteran of the State Police and served as the School Resource Officer for the Unadilla Valley Central Schools in New Berlin and the Franklin School Districts in Otsego County since 2006.
Just hours before her fatal crash, she was meeting with elementary students at Unadilla Valley, in one of the many roles she performed at the district, said High School Principal Frank Johnson, who shared an office with Mattice. Her duties at the school brought her to the district a “few times” a week where she aided teachers in the legalities of dealing with certain school issues and provided support to students seeking aid, even teaching lessons in the classroom, he said.
“She was a part of our school’s family. She wore a uniform, but was much more than that to us. She took a personal interest in students and staff, mentoring both,” he said. “She was friendly, outgoing, tough when she had to be, personal ... she was just a great person to be around ... the light in a group of people,” Johnson said.
UV Superintendent Robert Mackey said the district held a special crisis meeting this morning to address the sudden loss. Mackey said the school had been offered counseling assistance from the other school districts and was utilizing services from the student-based health clinic of Chenango Memorial Hospital.
“Many of our counselors were very close to Jill and so we will probably take those agencies up on those offers,” said Mackey, admitting his own personal feelings of loss.
Johnson said Mattice had developed a number of close relationships with students and staff at the school and had even invested her own personal time in volunteering for local community-school events, such participating in last year’s prom.
“My first reaction was numbing disbelief. She was at the school yesterday working with the elementary guidance counselor and talking with students. She touched the lives of 930 students and a 100 staff members. Everyone knows her and she was a district employee to us, not just a police officer,” said Johnson.
Mackey said counseling services at the school were already being utilized even before the first classes had begun. The district cancelled all morning programs so teachers could talk with students and read a prepared statement.
“Some of these same classes hearing this information are the same ones she was standing in yesterday and talking to,” said Mackey. “Jill was very involved here and this is a very personal loss to the district.”