Trucker Named TCA Highway Angel for Stopping to Help Accident Victim After Car Rolled & Crashed

June 14th, 2024

ALEXANDRIA, VA—The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has named truck driver Mark Wilson from Hernando, Mississippi, a TCA Highway Angel for stopping to help a man who crashed after rolling his car end-over-end several times on a Missouri highway. Wilson works for American Central Transport (ACT) out of Kansas City, Missouri.

It’s an incredible story: On May 2, 2024 around 10:30 a.m. on I-70 near Marshall, Missouri, Wilson observed a passenger vehicle directly in front of him losing control and leaving the roadway.  The vehicle entered a ditch in an empty field and rolled at a high rate of speed.

“It end-over-end crashed,” Wilson said. “I was only 100 feet away from him by the time I parked.”

Wilson brought his truck to a stop on the shoulder of I-70 at considerable risk to himself, and left his truck to go over to the disabled vehicle.

“Fear took over because airbags were covering the window,” Wilson said. “I was afraid if I looked in I was gonna see something I couldn’t unsee.”

Wilson yelled in the vehicle and heard a response from the driver, a very large man, who didn’t appear to have any serious injuries.  Wilson said the driver claimed he was driving to Illinois to pick up his grandmother to take her to his college graduation at a university in Nebraska. His car was completely packed with what appeared to be items from moving out of his college dorm.

The driver was pinned in the car, stuck. Wilson grabbed his arm to try to get him to slide out of the car.

“I pulled him out as far as I could and I told him ‘I need you to hug me like I’m your best friend,’” Wilson said.

Once the driver did this, he was able to pull him out of the vehicle. Emergency vehicles arrived soon after, and the driver refused medical treatment.  Wilson is glad that he stopped to help.

“How could I just drive away?” he said. “It just seemed like there was no way anybody could have survived that crash.”

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. Wilson.

The TCA Highway Angel website can be accessed at https://www.truckload.org/highway-angel/.