Knights of the Highway! That phrase still has deep meaning to us at Stevens West. Our team truly appreciates the hard work our partner drivers put in to deliver our flatbed and step deck freight. In a previous blog from 2 years ago we gave a huge shout out to the Knights of the Highway. Recently I came across a Transport Topics article that gave a great example of three drivers who went above and beyond. We wanted to share it with you, so here it is.
The Truckload Carriers Association has honored three drivers as highway angels.
Jeff Aleman, a professional truck driver for CFI, previously Contract Freighters Inc. and based in Joplin, Missouri, was recognized for pulling another professional truck driver to safety after two tractor-trailers collided.
Greg Moore, a driver for Landstar Transportation Logistics based in Rockford, Illinois, was recognized for pulling a woman from a burning pickup truck.
Taljinder Sohi, a driver for Bison Transport Inc, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, helped a fellow professional truck driver whose tractor-trailer jackknifed in British Columbia
Aleman was parked at a truck stop in Pageland, South Carolina on May 16, when he heard a loud boom. “At first I thought it was an explosion, but I knew something bad had happened” Aleman said.
He got out of his truck and saw that two tractor-trailers had collided while pulling out of the truck stop, so he ran to the scene to help. “I have previous experience as a law enforcement office and was running on instinct,” Aleman stated.
Aleman found one tractor-trailer wedged beneath the other trailer. He went to the cab of the lower truck and crawled in to help the driver out when he saw a diesel tank leaking behind the driver’s head and the engine sitting nearly in the passenger seat. Aleman broke out the back window and pulled the driver to safety.
Moore was driving on Highway 100 just outside of Keystone Heights, Florida, on April 13, when a pickup truck came around a curve ahead of him, left the roadway and crashed into a tree. Moore pulled over and ran to help. He found a woman with a serious arm injury unable to free herself from the truck. “I looked down and saw that her foot was up beneath the brake pedal,” Moore said.
Flames and smoke began coming from underneath the car. Moore pulled one more time, and the woman’s foot finally was freed from the vehicle. He rushed her a safe distance away just as her truck was engulfed in flames. He waited with her until help arrived.
On May 6, Sohi left brake check area and began heading southbound on Highway 5. A few minutes down the highway, he witnessed a tractor-trailer start to lose control while going around a slight corner. The truck swerved into the northbound lane, then wrenched back toward the median and jackknifed.
Sohi pulled his truck over to the shoulder and ran to check on the driver. “I saw that fuel was leaking out of his truck, and I told him to turn the truck off, but he was in shock and didn’t realize what was going on,”Sohi said.
He climbed into the truck and turned it off and helped the driver, as well as the team driver who was in the sleeper berth, out of the truck. Sohi called 911 and stayed at the scene until help arrived.
TCA, which is based in Alexandria, Virginia, presented the drivers with a certificate, patch, a lapel pin and truck decals. Bison Transport, CFI and Landstar Transportation Logistics also received certificates acknowledging the drivers as Highway Angels.
