Tanker driver recognized as Highway Angel
Published: January 24, 2007
The Truckload Carriers Association has recognized United Petroleum Transports driver Brian “Brownie” Brown of Eskridge, Kan., as a Highway Angel for rescuing a woman trapped in a burning vehicle.
While traveling west on Highway 470 in Topeka, Kan., Brown noticed an SUV about 300 yards ahead of him start to veer back and forth on the road.
Then the vehicle took a hard right, drove off the road down an embankment, crashed into trees and burst into flames. “I wondered if I was going to sleep tonight if I didn’t stop,” Brown recalled. “My wife was in a bad accident about a year ago, so when I saw that happen, I got goosebumps and I knew I had to help.”
Brown, who was driving a full fuel tanker, made sure he secured his rig safely off the road and put his flashers on before grabbing his fire extinguisher and running to help. Another driver who had stopped yelled for Brown to call for emergency help on his cell phone. Brown yelled back, “There’s no time for cell phones. Whoever’s in that car right now, we gotta get him out of there quick.”
Hoping the other driver would follow, Brown maneuvered through broken trees to get to the vehicle. He saw the female driver was unconscious, so he pounded on the passenger window, not knowing whether she was alive. Meanwhile, flames engulfed the engine. Brown tried to “buy us some time” by using his extinguisher, “but every time I tried to extinguish the flames, they came back harder,” he recalled.
The other driver reached the car, and while he pulled open the passenger door to try to remove the woman, Brown continued to attempt to extinguish the flames. Although she was conscious now, the woman couldn’t move her legs, making it difficult for the other man to get her out alone. Brown finally threw down his extinguisher and went to help.
“That was the most terrifying part of it,” Brown recalled. “Flames were melting the metal, blowing fuel all over the hot exhaust. I smelled the fumes from the burned-out plastic for two days after that.”
The two men dragged the woman about 200 yards and then watched as the flames broke through the dash and enveloped the car. “If we had sat down and made a phone call, she wouldn’t be here today,” Brown recalled.
Brown received a Highway Angel lapel pin, certificate and patch, and his employer, United Petroleum Transports, received a certificate recognizing a Highway Angel in the fleet.
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