PAUL JONES, WITH 32 YEARS BEHIND THE WHEEL AS A TRUCK DRIVER, USES MILITARY MEDICAL TRAINING TO REVIVE CRASH VICTIM

4/1/2022
Alexandria, Virginia          

The Truckload Carriers Association has named truck driver Paul Jones a Highway Angel for using his military medical training to courageously revive an unresponsive injured passenger after a car crash last November in Old Mystic, Connecticut. 

The story is inspiring: On November 29, 2021 around 11:10 p.m., Jones was driving southbound through Old Mystic, Connecticut on Route 95. He shared with TCA that a car passed him on the left, then proceeded to crash into a trailer traveling in front of it. He said the car then veered in Jones’ lane and ran off the road into the woods. Jones and other vehicles stopped to help, and Jones called 911. Other witnesses to the accident that stopped pulled the injured man out of the vehicle and laid him on the ground. He was unresponsive. 

“My military stuff just kicked in,” said Jones, referring to emergency medical training he had received during his five years in the U.S. Marine Corps where he served from 1981 to 1985. Jones couldn’t detect a pulse in the injured man, so he applied a medical procedure he learned in the Marines, called a sternum massage.  

“I got down on my hands and knees, I gave him a little smack on the sternum,” he shared, “he actually came back to life and scared the hell out of me!” 

Jones recalled that when emergency personnel arrived on the scene and he described what he had done to help the crash victim, one of the EMTs said, “Man, it’s good to be in the right place at the right time!” 

Jones has been a professional truck driver for 32 years and said, “I’m that guy– I don’t walk away from stuff. If something needs attention, I’m the first one.” 

TCA has presented him with a certificate, patches, lapel pin, and truck decals. The company has also received a letter acknowledging him 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.