Trucker Named Highway Angel for Rescuing Injured                    Woman After Flaming Crash

3/27/2023
Alexandria, Virginia

ALEXANDRIA, VA—The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has named truck driver Anthony Blunnie, from Woodville, TX, a Highway Angel for rescuing an injured woman after a crash that left her vehicle engulfed in flames. Blunnie drives for Knight Transportation out of Phoenix, AZ.

It’s an incredible story: On February 15, 2023, around 1 p.m., Blunnie was training a driver on Interstate 20 in Jackson, Mississippi, when he saw a van blow a tire and veer off the road, flipping and catching fire. He had the driver trainee pull over immediately.

“I jumped out of the truck,” Blunnie said, grabbing his fire extinguisher, and rushing to rescue the woman.  By the time he reached the driver’s side door, the flames were inside the vehicle and approaching the injured woman.

“I went around to her side and tried to pull her out,” he said, finally having to break all the van’s windows to pull her out of the vehicle, with the help of another person. “If he hadn’t come, I don’t know what I would’ve done — I couldn’t have gotten her out by myself,” Blunnie said.

Blunnie said the woman was a Domino’s pizza delivery driver on her way to work and she sustained multiple injuries in the crash.

“Her face was all bloody and she broke her nose — the airbag got her.”

He said he didn’t hesitate to jump into the dangerous situation to rescue the woman.

“She would’ve been dead,” he said, if he hadn’t rescued her. “Ten seconds after we got her out of the van, it was gone.”

Since the program’s inception in August 1997, nearly 1,300 professional truck drivers have been recognized as Highway Angels for exemplary kindness, courtesy, and courage displayed while on the job. Thanks to the program’s presenting sponsor, EpicVue, and supporting sponsor, DriverFacts, TCA is able to showcase outstanding drivers like Mr. Blunnie.