London long-haul trucker honoured for highway heroics

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London long-haul trucker Joe Carroll knows “every bump, every pothole” on I-75 from Kentucky back to Canada.

Twenty times a month, during his run with robotics or cleaning supplies, he passes that point in Ohio near Wapakoneta, an hour south of Toledo, that reminds him of the Ohio truck driver he met in March under the worst of conditions.

And, for his courage in rescuing that trucker after a crash, Carroll, 58, has been named a TCA Highway Angel by the Truckload Carriers Association.

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“I still look at it because I’m amazed he was unhurt. Literally, amazed,” he said Sunday.

He is one of 1,400 TCA Highway Angels that have been named since August 1997, an honour that’s given to truckers “for exemplary kindness, courtesy and courage displayed on the job.”

Carroll, who drives from Elgin Motor Freight, has been on the road for six years after careers as a crane operator and a construction supervisor. He has found his passion in trucking and loves it so much that he bought his own rig. “Honestly, it was the best decision I’ve ever done.”

He drives 8,000 kilometres every two weeks, and drives mostly at night hauling freight to Florence, Kentucky, and then picking up a load in Ohio the next day to bring back to Mississauga.

On March 30, at about 4:30 a.m. he was heading north toward Perrysburg, Ohio, where he usually drops his empty trailer and takes his required 10-hour break before loading up again and heading back to Canada.

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He said he could see the taillights of another truck in front of him far in the distance, near a rest area. Suddenly, Carroll said he saw a flash. When he reached the rest area, he saw a truck had crashed through a steel barrier into the ditch. It was lying on the driver’s side.

There was debris and gravel all over the road. The lights on the truck had dimmed, but Carroll said he couldn’t see any smoke or fire.

“I jumped on the brakes,” Carroll said. He got out of his truck and ran back to the wreck. A woman who must have witnessed the crash was there with her phone out, calling 911.

Carroll said he told the woman to stay at the top of the ditch with her phone while he ran down the three-metre drop to help. The truck had a dump trailer on it and was pulling a heavy load of lime. The roof of the cab was ripped off.

“I didn’t think the outcome was going to be good,” Carroll said.

But, as he approached the truck, he yelled: “Driver, driver.”

“He yelled back: ‘I’m over here,’” Carroll said.

The driver was under the roof. Carroll rolled it off him. All of the items from the bunk – the mattress, tools and belongings – were on top of him.

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“It was as if he was in a chair laying on his back,” Carroll said, adding the driver said: “Just help me up.”

Carroll said he wouldn’t until he checked to see if the driver was injured. Other than being wet from the ice that had been in his cooler, “he was actually fine. I helped him to the top of the ditch.”

The driver’s only requests were for his wallet, cellphone and cigarettes. Carroll said he stayed at the scene for an hour and 45 minutes while police arrived and a tow truck pulled the wreck out of the ditch.

The driver was from Ohio. He was a bit confused in the minutes after the crash and had no memory of what happened, but thought he’d blacked out before hitting the guard rail. He didn’t want any medical attention, but a friend showed up and promised Carroll he would take the driver to a doctor.

The driver asked Carroll to take a couple photos of the wreckage.

Carroll headed to Mississauga, where his safety manager reviewed the electronic log on the truck and asked why Carroll had a hard brake or a hard turn recorded. Carroll explained what happened and they reviewed his dashboard camera footage.

He and the driver have exchanged text messages since then. In the last message, the driver said he was receiving some physiotherapy.

“He thanked me, which was awesome, but I would hope somebody would do the same thing for me,” Carroll said. “I just couldn’t pass someone who was in an accident.”

jsims@postmedia.com

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