MELTON DRIVER PULLS HIT AND RUN VICTIM FROM OVERTURNED CAR

5/7/2021
Alexandria, Virginia  

The Truckload Carriers Association has named Aaron DeSilva, from Midland, Texas a Highway Angel for stopping to help a young driver after a tractor trailer clipped his vehicle, causing it to overturn and spin out of control. 

It was late one evening in March as DeSilva and his wife, Tiffany, were going through the West Memphis area on I-40. “All of a sudden I saw a big flash, sparks, and fire as something flew across the road in front of us,” DeSilva shared with TCA. It was a car, on its roof, sliding across the road. “Another tractor trailer looked like he was switching lanes, or maybe wasn’t paying attention. He just came over the line and clipped the front of the car and spun it out and flipped him on his roof,” he added. The truck slowed and pulled over, but then left the scene. DeSilva pulled to the shoulder, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and jumped out as Tiffany called 911. He had to run across two lanes of traffic. “Cars and trucks slowed down long enough to look and then drove on,” he recalled. “We were the only ones that stopped.”    

DeSilva rushed to the overturned car and pried the driver’s door open. He found a young male driver, in his early to mid-20s. “When I asked him if he was okay, his first words were, ‘What did I hit?’ I told him he didn’t hit anything, a truck hit him. He was pretty shaken up.” DeSilva then helped him crawl out of the smoking vehicle. He turned off the car’s ignition and then moved the driver away from the vehicle and waited for first responders to arrive. The driver called his mother to let her know he had been in an accident. He handed the phone to Tiffany and his mother asked if she and Aaron would stay with her son until she and her husband could get there. They agreed. The couple later learned the young driver had sustained several broken ribs.     

Thinking back on that evening, DeSilva said they were probably put there for a reason. “We had made a couple stops during the day which put us there at that particular time,” he said. “My wife says everything happens for a reason. We were meant to be there to help him.”    

DeSilva has been driving over 22 years and doing OTR for nearly eight years. “I’ve been all over the country,” he said. “Our kids are grown now so it’s just the two of us. We decided to be on the road fulltime together. I enjoy my job and seeing the country.” DeSilva is originally from Bermuda and has lived in the US for 12 years.    

For his willingness to assist, TCA has presented him with a certificate, patch, lapel pin, and truck decals. His employer has also received a certificate acknowledging their driver as a Highway Angel.

Since the program’s inception in August 1997, nearly 1,300 professional truck drivers have been recognized as Highway Angels for the exemplary kindness, courtesy, and courage they have displayed while on the job.

Special thanks to the program’s Presenting Sponsor, EpicVue, and Supporting Sponsor, DriverFacts.