RIVERVIEW, Fla — The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) named a Riverview truck driver a "TCA Highway Angel" after he helped rescue a mother and her child from their flipped car.
On March 4, truck driver Rodney Clay was traveling on I-435 in Lawrence, KS, when he saw an accident happening about a quarter mile ahead of him.
According to TCA, the car flipped over, hit the ground, slid, and crashed into the fast lane wall. Clay, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, got to the car and saw all the airbags were deployed.
Clay lifted the passenger side airbag and found a young girl screaming and shaking inside the car. The driver, a woman, was bleeding from her mouth.
“I told the women, ‘You have to get out of this car now—it’s smoking really bad,’” Clay said. “I was afraid it was going to blow up.”
TCA said Clay stood in the road to summon additional help. Another truck driver stopped to help Clay. The two drivers pulled the young girl out of the vehicle and then rescued the woman, moving them both far away from the smoking vehicle.
Soon after, paramedics arrived, and Clay left the scene. When asked why he stopped to help, he told TCA that as a father of six, he thinks about paying it forward.
“If it happened to any of my kids, I’d want somebody to stop,” he said.
