Lee was driving along I-95 North in Florida when his rig approached ample traffic which quickly revealed a multi-car accident as its impetus.

“The traffic started to part ways like the holy waters,” Lee said, “and when I got up there, I saw more and more of it.”

The cars involved in the accident had all swerved their vehicles to avoid colliding with one another; however in the chaos, the vehicles made contact and stopped mid-way along the busy highway. One of the cars was a white Buick.

“When I got up there, there’s a whole bunch of people around the white Buick involved in the accident,” Lee said. “The door was caved in, and I asked if the lady was trapped in there and they said, ‘Yes, she is.’”

Lee saw that immediate action needed to be taken to save the woman. He ran to his truck and grabbed his binder bar which he used in an attempt to free the woman, who was injured. He was unsuccessful in getting her out but, from his past service with the U.S. Air Force and local fire stations, he was able to accurately assess the situation.

“The best that I could do was just to try to keep her comfortable and keep her still,” he said. “I did what I could to keep her awake and calm until the paramedics and rescue arrived.”

When emergency personnel arrived, police officers asked Lee to use his CB radio to notify other truck drivers to allow room for emergency vehicles to pass through the traffic.

Three of the people involved in the crash were taken to the hospital. Everyone involved in the accident – including the woman trapped in the Buick – is expected to recover from their injuries, paramedics said.

Lee’s selfless actions aided in the survival of those involved, but he remains humble.

“I don’t feel like a hero mainly because that would entail being more involved in the process than what I was,” Lee said.

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Ellis, the former 911 director for Lincoln County, North Carolina, moved his truck to the side of the road and instantaneously left his cab to check on the passengers of two of the cars involved in the accident. One of the cars had suffered such impact that it was 100 feet off the road, among some trees.

“I first checked on the car that was rear-ended, and that driver was OK,” Ellis said. “I saw others exiting their cars and approaching the vehicle that overturned, so I headed off to the woods to check on the truck.”

Ellis first thought the driver of the car in the woods was a fellow truck driver. He realized that it was a pickup truck hauling pallets on a tandem axel trailer. The driver of the car was upset but appeared to be OK physically.

“She was frantically trying to call her husband to let him know what had happened and even handed me the phone to tell him where she was,” Ellis said. “I couldn’t get her out of the vehicle because she (had) a chain link fence against the passenger door and a clump of trees at the driver’s door. I stayed with her until EMS arrived and took over patient care.”

Ellis was grateful to be one of the first people to arrive at the scene of the crash.

“Once a firefighter/EMT, always a firefighter/EMT,” he said. “I was a volunteer fireman for 12 years and in the 911 field for 15. It is a rare occasion that I would be able to be at a scene quick enough to offer any help that wouldn’t already be there.”

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Mike Lempka, who drives for ABF Freight in Fort Smith, Arkansas, was recently given the designation for saving a man who experienced a medical emergency while driving, causing him to crash through a fence and hitting a flagpole. Lempka helped to remove the man from the car following the crash, as reported by Truckers News.

The collision happened in the morning of Jan. 25 in Lincoln, Nebraska, as Lempka and a co-worker were walking to their trucks to start their day. The two heard a loud noise and when they turned their attention to see what had caused it, witnessed a car crashing through a fence and into a flagpole. They immediately began to help.

“We ran over there and this guy is in his vehicle,” Lempka said. “He’s clearly having an episode – he’s shaking.”

Before Lempka could call emergency services, a police officer pulled onto the scene. The man in the car had been ahead of him in traffic, and the officer had witnessed the crash. The driver was unresponsive when the officer tried to talk to him. Deciding that they needed to remove him from his vehicle, Lempka helped the officer safely get the man out.

The officer began CPR while Lempka, a volunteer driver for the Adams Rescue Squad in his hometown and a holder of CPR certification, stood nearby to offer any aid.

“This guy was literally dead,” Lempka said. “He (the officer) would do chest compressions and this guy’s eyes would open up and look around, then he would stop chest compressions and then the guy would just fade away.”

Lempka’s immediate response to the crash, and his help in getting the man out of the vehicle, helped to save a life. The officer on the scene contacted Lempka after the accident to tell him that the driver had survived.

“This was his lucky day,” Lempka said. “It just felt like somebody needed help – it seemed like the right thing to do.”

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DiFronzo was stopped at a New Jersey truck stop when he noticed a female puppy tied to a tree. DiFronzo realized that the puppy had been abandoned and was malnourished.

The TCA released a statement on DiFronzo finding the puppy and nursing her back to health.

“I fed her cheeseburgers because I asked everybody around whose dog it was and no one said anything,” DiFronzo told TCA. “They said a guy was trying to sell the dog over the weekend, and I got there on Thursday – so to me, that’s six days that the dog has been there, tied to the tree.”

When he first approached her, she was obviously scared and unsure of whether to trust DiFronzo or not. He untied the puppy from the tree, earning a bit of her trust, and took her in as his own.

“She stayed with me the whole week in the truck,” DiFronzo said.” She couldn’t get enough cheeseburgers – she was starving.”

Once DiFronzo got back to his home state of Pennsylvania, he took the puppy to a veterinarian. It was confirmed that the puppy was malnourished and was also in need of antibiotics.

DiFronzo got Roxy Lynn, the puppy’s new name, the care she needed and then found her forever home with one of his friends.

“I’d do it again tomorrow,” DiFronzo said. “I love animals and you just don’t do that to animals.”

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