Tony Fagnant Top Trooper
Trooper Anthony Fagnant, left, receives the Wyoming Highway Patrol’s elite status of Top Trooper as Commercial Vehicle Level I Inspector for 2008 from Col. Sam Powell of the WHP during an awards luncheon in Cheyenne in July. Fagnant was one of 21 WHP Troopers recognized for going above and beyond in helping the WHP fulfill their strategic plan for 2008.
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WHP ‘Top Trooper’ Tony Fagnant retires
by Wyoming Department of Transportation
August 11, 2009
Wyoming State Trooper Tony Fagnant of Pinedale is ending his career with the Wyoming Highway Patrol on a high note, having recently being awarded the "Top Trooper" Award for Commercial Vehicle Level I Inspector for 2008.
Fagnant, 50, is a Rawlins native and a 1977 graduate of Rawlins High School. He graduated from the Wyoming Technical Institute in Laramie, with a degree in Diesel Technology in 1978.
He joined the Wyoming Department of Transportation as a diesel mechanic in Rawlins right out of WyoTech and worked there for eight and a half years before joining the WHP in Pinedale in 1986. He has worked as the Pinedale Division T Motor Carrier Officer (Trooper I) for the past five years.
Fagnant said the CVSA Level I award was presented to him for enforcing State and Federal truck safety regulations to ensure we have safe trucks traveling our highways and to get unsafe trucks and drivers off the road. He said, "The most enjoyable aspect of being a Trooper was the satisfaction of people saying thank you even after issuing them a citation." He said he will miss working with the trucks and the firearms. He also served as the firearms instructor for the Division.
The awards for Top Trooper are given to Troopers in recognition of going above and beyond, in helping the WHP fulfill their strategic plan for the year. The strategic plan has four main objectives, which includes reducing highway fatalities, reducing Driving While Under the Influence (D.W.U.I.s), increasing employee satisfaction and maximizing service to the public.
WHP utilizes six goals to help attain the objectives, which includes keeping people safe on the state transportation system, handling every call with a service oriented response, developing and caring for their employees, performing their duties and obligations, both required and expected without reservation, formalizing an agency structure that prepares WHP for future growth and demands by meeting both internal and external needs, and operating within a balanced budget (expenditures by plan not crisis).
To assist WHP in achieving its goals and objectives, the following strategic performance measures have been established. The strategic measures are evaluated at the end of the year to determine if WHP is meeting its targets and ultimately accomplishing its goals.
To keep people safe on the state transportation system, measures include reducing the number of fatalities, reducing the number of impaired driver crashes, reducing the number of impaired driver related fatal crashes, reducing the number of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) crashes, reducing the number of CMV fatalities, to name a few.
To perform their duties and obligations, both required and expected without reservation, measures include increasing the number of drivers who are placed out of service compared to the total number of CVSA Level III inspections, increasing the number of vehicles placed out of service compared to the total number of CVSA Level I and Level II inspections, to name a few.
Fagnant said one of the most memorable situations he had while on the Patrol was stopping a pregnant lady for speeding and had told her she should be buckling up (prior to the seat belt law) and having her tell him she couldn’t wear one because she was pregnant. He explained to her that she could and should still wear one and gave her a seat belt literature card showing her how to wear one. Apparently giving her the card paid off as she was later stopped again for speeding and several hours later, she rolled her vehicle, yet walked away from it, because she did in fact, put her seat belt on.
Fagnant retired Tuesday, Aug. 11, from the WHP. He is engaged to be married to Rhonda DeVille next year.
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