On September 21, 1988 at approximately 7:30 pm, Trooper Robert J. Kolilis was struck and fatally injured by a pickup truck on Missouri Route M in Washington County near Irondale, Missouri.

Corporal Bruns was killed when the patrol vehicle he was a passenger in skidded off an icy road and hit a bridge abutment on an ice covered Missouri Highway 6 near St. Joseph. Corporal Bruns was an 18 year veteran of the Highway Patrol. One week earlier he was a pallbearer in the fundeal of for Trooper Russel Harper. The driver, Keverne Kulle was hospitalized with broken bones and bruises. Driving conditions were hazardous state wide as a sleet and ice storm swept through the state.

Corporal Bruns was appointed to the Highway Patrol in 1968. He was survived by his wife, son and daughter.