Memorial services at Mount Gambier and Millicent will be conducted by police next week to commemorate the 40th anniversary of two local on-duty police officers being killed in a car crash in Adelaide on March 28, 1982.
A 50-strong contingent of police and friends are taking part in a commemorative motorbike ride from Adelaide to Mount Gambier.
Their ride will be departing the Police Academy on Monday and stay overnight at Robe.
The first service will be conducted at the Millicent Cross of Sacrifice at 10.30am on Tuesday (March 29).
The second service will be held at the Mt Gambier Police Station memorial wall at 12.30pm.
Both officers, Constable Mathew Payne, 22 and Constable Warren Matheson, 24, were originally from the South East, Mathew from Rendelsham and Warren from Mt Gambier.
Both joined the police at the age of 16, moved to Adelaide and spent three years at the Police Academy, two years apart.
In a twist of fate, both men from the South East were paired up in a patrol car on nightshift out of the Darlington patrol base.
They were in pursuit of a vehicle driven recklessly along Tapleys Hill Road when the offending driver forced their police vehicle off the road and into a tree at Glenelg North, killing both officers.
