Heroic Truckers Rescue Fellow Driver From Fiery Crash Site

by Jana Ritter - Published: 11/21/2016

A tanker truck driver is thankful to be alive after his rig crashed and exploded early Monday morning, and authorities are hoping to locate and honor the three Good Samaritan fellow truck drivers who stopped to safe his life.

                                                                

The incident occurred early Monday morning just before 3:15 am on I-96 just north of South Haven, Michigan. According to South Haven Area Emergency Services Chief, Ronald Wise, the tanker truck driver was on the job returning from a loading station in Niles, where fuel trucks from all over the Midwest load up with gasoline to deliver to gas stations. Hauling 8,500 gallons of gasoline, the truck was then headed to a distribution plant in Pullman and had been traveling northbound on I-96 when the driver attempted to exit on the Pullman Road ramp. While the investigation is still trying to determine what exactly happened next, Wise says they believe “the cab slipped off the road, and the tanker trailer rolled" and broke free, tipped onto its side, then erupted in flames.

                                                               

Fortunately, at least three fellow truck drivers happened to be passing by just minutes after the crash and each one of them immediately pulled over to assist the driver in trouble. When they ran over to the wreckage, they found the driver lying on the ground just outside of his cab, unable to move. Despite his height and heavy frame weighing around 300 lbs., the team of truckers quickly worked together to drag the man by his arms and feet and managed to take him about 150 feet away from the wreckage. Just in time before the inferno ravaged the area where they had found him. "They saved his life. Thank heaven for bystanders because they are what saved his life," Wise said.

Shortly after when emergency crews arrived at the scene, Wise says the entire tanker was in flames, hot enough to explode the 18-wheeler's tires and to melt the truck into a bowl of aluminum. "It was a lotta, lotta heat. I live a couple of miles away, and I could see the flames over the treetops." Rescue workers pulled the driver up the embankment to an ambulance, and transported him to South Haven Community Hospital. He survived the ordeal with non-life-threatening injuries. Wise says he would like to track down the truck drivers that stopped to help, so his department can honor their heroic efforts. "These gentlemen that stopped to help him were true lifesavers," he says.

Comments: