Anthony Blunnie, a truck driver from Woodville, TX who works for Knight Transportation out of Phoenix, AZ is being recognized after courageously rescuing an injured woman whose vehicle was engulfed in flames following a crash. The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) recently named him a Highway Angel in honor of his heroic act.
On an otherwise typical day in Jackson, Mississippi, Blunnie was training a driver on Interstate 20 when the unexpected happened. This past February 15th at 1 p.m., he witnessed a van blow its tire and careen off the road into an inferno. He immediately instructed the trainee to pull over to see if they could help.
“I jumped out of the truck,” Blunnie said, grabbing his fire extinguisher, and rushing to rescue the woman. The fire was spreading quickly; by the time he reached the driver’s side door, the flames were inside the vehicle and nearing the injured woman.
“I went around to her side and tried to pull her out,” he said, finally having to break all the van’s windows to pull her out of the vehicle, with the help of another person. “If he hadn’t come, I don’t know what I would’ve done — I couldn’t have gotten her out by myself,” Blunnie said.
The woman, who turned out to be a Domino’s pizza delivery driver on her way to work, was tragically injured in the crash, according to Blunnie. The victim sustained multiple injuries that would require medical attention.
“Her face was all bloody and she broke her nose — the airbag got her.”
Without a moment of hesitation, he leapt into action to save the woman from peril. His brave act of courage has not gone unrecognized.
“She would’ve been dead,” he said. “Ten seconds after we got her out of the van, it was gone.”
Source: Highway Angel
