ARLINGTON (AP) - Each year since the 1997 death of a public safety officer at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in a traffic accident, fellow officers have gathered at his grave.

That tradition continued Thursday in Arlington on the 16th anniversary of the death of Cpl. Richard “Rick” Barreda.

His mother, Maria Barreda-Alvarado, told the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Department of Public Safety officers gathered, “This means so much to us.”

Barreda was 26 when he died on Feb. 14, 1997. He was trying to avoid a collision with a shuttle van but slid underneath after being forced to lay down his motorcycle.

Floyd Martinez _ the first officer to respond to the crash scene _ tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram the gathering helps them “remember him in our way.”

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