An Ohio trucker was recently recognized for aiding the victim of a head-on collision.
The Truckload Carriers Association recently named truck driver Tommy Burgoon from Wapakoneta, Ohio, a TCA Highway Angel for stopping to help during a horrific early morning crash in Ohio. Burgoon drives for ABF Freight out of Fort Smith, Arjansas.
TCA explains:
Tommy BurgoonBurgoon pulled up on the scene of an accident which was a head on-collision between a car that was going the wrong way and a semi truck traveling northbound on Interstate 471, next to exit 2, in Cincinnati. It was around 1:30 in the morning.
“I came up on a wreck that just happened,” he said. “I’m pretty sure they were going 70 miles an hour driving straight into each other. I just know (the car) was on the wrong side of the highway and went head-on with that truck.”
Burgoon rushed out of his truck to the car that was on fire, helped extinguish the flames that were surrounding the driver’s feet, extinguished the remaining flames on the front of his car, cut the seatbelt of the driver, and got him to safety with the help of first responders. The driver had serious injuries, including a severely hurt left arm and facial gashes.
“I got his seatbelt undone but I don’t think there would have been any way we could’ve pried him out of there,” the 10-year truck driver said. “He was in there pretty good.”
Burgoon said his Army training kicked in and that he was happy to stop and help because he would want someone else to do the same for a member of his family.
“You do what you can do,” he said. “There’s no way I could just leave him in there; it’s absurd to me to even think that.”
Tommy Burgoon
