Selfless Strangers Save Truck Driver

As headlines continue to talk about the chaos caused by winter storm Jonas, one story shows how it brought out the humanity in a group of selfless strangers that banned together in the heroic rescue of a truck driver. (watch video here)

By Friday night, the snow had already covered the roads along the Pennsylvania Turnpike and about twenty miles east of Bedford a truck driver had lost control and was teetering over the edge of a hillside. Arlyn Satanek is another truck driver who had been driving the same road and realized it was too dangerous to keep going. He radioed to other truck drivers to back it down. Then he came upon the scene of the accident and saw a sight that he will never forget. "I saw the truck out in front of me pretty much finishing his wipe out and cutting of the entire two lanes of traffic and angling down over the cliff," said Satanek. "The driver took out nearly half a mile of guardrail. Debris and fuel covered the road and the truck started smoking.” At that point Satanek said he slammed on his brakes with everything he had and just prayed he wouldn’t lose control as well.

Satanek saw the truck driver was jammed inside of the cab, in a terrifying position over the hillside and within seconds other motorists had stopped on the road and jumped out of their vehicles to help. “People didn't seem to care, they jumped out to help. It was just like everyone knew in that moment we have to reach him, 'Let's lock into this and get this guy up.' It was awesome," Satanek said. Locked arm in arm, the strangers formed a human chain down the steep cliff amongst the debris and thick smoke. Through sheer determination, they were able to reach the injured driver and pulled him out of the cab to safety.

Satanek said it was such a powerful moment that he wanted to take a picture and remember it forever. "I don’t know any of their names, what their faces looked like. I can only say they made a terrible situation a little bit better by helping someone out that was really in need." The driver appeared to be injured, but thankfully he survived the accident.

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