Truck driver sacrifices his safety to save others at accident scene

Now THIS is a Knight of the Highway.

Numerous media outlets, including People magazine, are reporting on how veteran truck driver Richard Hughes, 53, deliberately crashed his truck Monday, May 23, to avoid hitting people who were standing around an accident scene in Tulsa.

It appears Hughes drove his tractor-trailer off Tulsa’s Inner Dispersal Loop, struck a highway sign and was trapped in his cab for two hours. He is said to have suffered a broken leg as a result of his actions.

Reports in the news say a driver was backing down an exit ramp, which caused the initial accident. Hughes came upon the scene of the chain-reaction collision and drove up a concrete embankment to avoid motorists who had left their vehicles.

“I knew I couldn’t stop,” Hughes told Oklahoma’s News. “I just did what I had to do. I wasn’t going to hit them people.”

Hughes has driven for 35 years Shepherd Oil Company, which is based in Blackwell, Oklahoma. His tanker was empty at the time of the crash.