Authorities say a veteran Las Vegas police detective was the motorist killed when a steel crossbar marking low clearance at a freeway construction project collapsed atop his vehicle 

LAS VEGAS -- A veteran Las Vegas police detective was the motorist killed when a steel crossbar marking low clearance at a freeway construction project collapsed atop his vehicle, the department announced Friday.

Justin Terry, 45, was on duty in an unmarked Las Vegas police car when he died in what the department termed a tragic accident on U.S. 95 near the 215 Beltway interchange in northwest Las Vegas.

Police said Terry joined the department in 2001 and was currently assigned to the homicide sex crimes bureau. He was also part of a sex offender apprehension detail and worked with a U.S. Marshals task force.

The married father of two also was credited with starting a police dirt bike program that let officers ride into hard-to-reach desert locations to find and serve the homeless.

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that bystanders tried to provide aid before paramedics and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers arrived following the 7 a.m. incident.

Justin Hopkins, a Nevada Department of Transportation official, told the newspaper an oversized piece of construction equipment being towed on a trailer dislodged the beam erected as a height warning for trucks approaching the overpass work zone.