The story is from 2019 but it’s an amazing one that every person on the road should hear.
It’s not just this individual and it’s not just this singular selfless act that we celebrate this week of driver appreciation. It is all the selfless acts that truck drivers perform on a daily basis.
Days and weeks on end without seeing family is normal for many. Missing important holidays and life events is part of the job.
“If you’re not growing together, you’re growing apart.” was the quote my friend said explaining why his career destroyed his family life.
Reflect on how you act toward and around truck drivers. Whether you are driving or at a rest stop, take a moment and think of everything that annoying truck slowing you down does for you every day.
When you arrive home every night to your family, think about the truckers out there looking for a parking space (often for hours) and then locking themselves in their cab for a rest.
Back to the story.
The acts of this particular truck driver as reported in Go by Truck will never be forgotten by the motorists who were saved.
The details are sparse and I think that’s for the best. I don’t want to know this hero’s name. I don’t want to know all the minutiae. The act, thoughts, and emotions of the incident are too amazing to be bound by trivial details.
On this day back in 2019, rather than run into a pile-up of vehicles as a crash was unfolding in front of him, this driver chose a different outcome.
He drove off a bridge to almost certain death in order to spare others’ lives. Knowing he had an 80,000-pound hammer about to crush them, instead he sacrificed his life.
The responders to the accident called him a hero and stated that he most certainly saved the lives of at least four people.
Hero or angel? Your call.
The Trucker lists a number of heroes to be honored this month. I won’t go through each here, but take a moment to take a look.
Keep driver appreciation week in your daily intentions all year long.
Peace and Love.
Share your strange freight story with The Dude
