Maverick Transportation’s Ron Allen from Big Stone Gap, VA was recently named a Highway Angel by the Truckload Carriers Association for his heroic act of stopping to assist a man who had been struck and injured by his own truck. This good Samaritan driver is an example of how helping others makes us all safer on our roads.
Allen was on his way to work early one December morning when he noticed a U-Haul Truck that appeared to be coming towards him in the darkness of the early morning, traveling on the wrong side of the road.
“The lights were coming toward me,” he said.
As he got closer, he was able to confirm the U-Haul was rolling across the road.
“It went across the road into the median and got stuck there,” Allen said. “It happened right in front of me.”
Without hesitation, Allen pulled over to the shoulder to allow the truck next to him the opportunity to change lanes and avoid the U-Haul. As he was pulling over, he noticed a man on the ground, holding his leg, almost in the traffic lane.
Another motorist stopped to check on the man, and while that individual dialed 911, Allen got into the U-Haul, which was now wrecked in the woods, and put the vehicle in park. The injured man had told him that he pulled over to the side of the road, and thought he had the U-Haul in park; however, it turned out to be in reverse. The injured driver explained that he’d exited the truck, rolled his ankle on the rumble strip on the road, and then the door pushed him down and the U-Haul ran over his leg.
While in the U-Haul, Allen retrieved the injured man’s cell phone and jacket before returning to his side and helping him put on his coat. The injured man had a compound fracture in his leg and the bone had punctured the skin. Allen waited with him until emergency personnel arrived on the scene.
“The reason I stopped was something clicked inside of me that I needed to help this person,” he said.
Source: Highway Angel
