Truck Drivers recognized for heroism

TORONTO, (June 8, 2004) — Three Ontario-based truck drivers were honoured this morning by National Transportation Week officials for their quick thinking and heroic actions while on the job.

Colin Shaw, a truck driver for Muir’s Cartage Ltd. of Concord, Ont. and Charles Carriere of Villeneuve Tank Lines in Cornwall, Ont. were each presented with the Award of Valor at the 35th annual National Transportation Week Ontario Awards Breakfast this morning. Guy Beaulieu, a driver for Windsor, Ont.-based Daimler Chrysler Transport, received an Award of Recognition.

On October 22, 2003, while driving home from work in Toronto, truck driver Colin Shaw came across a jeep that had crashed into a tree and was on fire. He pulled his vehicle over and ran to the scene, where he saw a young woman was slumped over the steering wheel. Shaw used a tire iron to smash one of the windows and enter the vehicle. With the help of another passing driver, the two were able to free the woman and drag her away from the jeep.

The woman then regained consciousness and mistakenly told the two men that there was someone else in the vehicle. Shaw ran back to the jeep, which was now completely engulfed in flames. When he couldn’t find anyone, he started to walk away, when the vehicle suddenly exploded. He later learned no one else had been inside.

Charles Carriere was driving west on Highway 401 near the Cataraqui Marsh in Kingston last winter when he noticed a set of headlights on the eastbound side of the highway veer off the road and plunge into a field of trees. Suddenly, he saw a ball of flames erupt from the vehicle.

Carriere grabbed a fire extinguisher from his truck and ran across the road to the crash site, and attempted to douse the flames coming from the engine. He then opened the driver-side door and found an unconscious woman inside the car, wedged in place by the pushed in dash and steering wheel. At this point, the flames regained their fury and shot up to the roof, igniting the woman’s hair. Carriere patted the flames out, before others showed up. With the help of another man, Carriere was able to free the woman. By the time emergency crews showed up, the car was completely engulfed in flames.

On March 25, Guy Beaulieu was heading westbound on the E.C. Row Expressway in Windsor at 100 km/h when he saw an eastbound sport utility vehicle suddenly cross the median and overturn in his lane. Beaulieu braked and steered his loaded truck around the wrecked SUV, but the driver had been thrown from her vehicle in the crash and was rolling on the road directly in the path of Beaulieu’s rig.

Responding quickly, Beaulieu aimed his truck so that the woman wouldn’t be crushed by the front wheels. Instead, she was pinned by an axle as the transport truck came to a stop.

Staff Sergeant Ed McNorton of the Windsor Police Service said at the time, “I believe strongly that the victim would be dead or severely injured if it was not for the action and decisiveness of Guy Beaulieu. His skill in handling a loaded transport truck and his display of calmness under pressure certainly saved her life.”