A Missouri trucker has been honored for his actions to aid drivers involved in a collision between two trucks earlier this year.
The Truckload Carriers Association recently named truck driver Jesse Felton of Bertramb, Missouri a TCA Highway Angel for stopping to help two truckers after a horrific crash. Felton drives for Buchheit Logistics out of Jackson, Missouri.
TCA explains:
On Feb. 22, at about 2:55 p.m., on southbound Interstate 55, near Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, a crash took place involving two commercial motor vehicles. One traveling northbound lost control and crossed the median, striking a second truck traveling southbound.
As a result of the impact, both vehicles received an enormous amount of damage. On his way home from work, Felton was traveling southbound in the passing lane and was the first person on the scene after the crash. He exited his vehicle, ran through large amount of diesel fuel on the roadway, through the debris of two trucks, and checked on the drivers.
“It was bad, because both trucks — neither cab was really attached to the truck anymore,” Felton said.
First, Felton went to the northbound vehicle and realized the driver was OK when the driver gave him the ‘thumbs up’ sign. Then, Felton went to the southbound vehicle.
“The driver of that truck was hanging out of the side of the cab because the door was gone,” he said. “He was bleeding really bad; his arm was split open by his elbow and he was losing a lot of blood.”
Felton took a lace from one of his boots, grabbed a pencil, and made a makeshift tourniquet around the driver’s left arm. Felton placed the tourniquet several inches above the wound and began applying turns to the pencil until the bleeding started to slow down and finally stopped.
Then Felton noticed the driver was being choked by the shoulder strap of the seatbelt that was wrapped around his neck. Felton immediately used his knife to cut the upper shoulder strap of the seatbelt, which freed the driver and allowed him to start breathing.
Eventually, first responders arrived. Because he sustained such significant injuries, the driver was transported to a Cape Girardeau hospital and finally airlifted to a St. Louis hospital,
“I would hope anybody that could would do it for me,” Felton said.
