Bryan truck driver receives praise for helping victim from burning vehicle

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - The Truckload Carriers Association has named truck driver Andrew Hastie from Bryan a TCA Highway Angel for stopping to help victims involved in a wreck and for trying to put out a car fire.

The rescue happened in April in Kennesaw, Georgia.

The TCA says Hastie, who drives for Decker Truck Line, was on Interstate 75 when he came upon an accident, with a car on fire about 25 yards off the freeway in the woods. There were already people who stopped and tried to extinguish the fire, but he saw someone pointing to a fire extinguisher indicating they needed more.

“My thought process at that point was ‘I’ve gotta stop, I just can’t keep going,’” Hastie said, noting that he had a fire extinguisher with him. He pulled over, grabbed his fire extinguisher, and ran up to the engulfed car.

“It was one of the worst (accidents) I’ve seen,” Hastie said.

He and other bystanders were able to get an injured female passenger out of the vehicle. She was eventually life-flighted to receive medical attention.

Paramedics, fire crews, and numerous other responders arrived about five or ten minutes after Hastie stopped to help. A former volunteer police/firefighter, Hastie helped lay the fire hoses out to extinguish the flames. Looking back, he is glad he stopped.

“They needed a fire extinguisher, I had a fire extinguisher,” he said. “If I had just kept going I would have felt like crap.”

According to a news release from TCA: “Since the TCA Highway Angel program’s inception in August 1997, nearly 1,400 professional truck drivers have been recognized as TCA Highway Angels for exemplary kindness, courtesy, and courage displayed while on the job. Thanks to the program’s presenting sponsor, EpicVue, and supporting sponsors, DriverFacts and Northland Insurance, TCA is able to showcase outstanding drivers like Mr. Hastie.”

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