PEGASUS TRANSPORTATION DRIVER SHANE BROOKS RECOGNIZED AS TCA HIGHWAY ANGEL

05/13/2010
Alexandria, Virginia

Shane Brooks, a professional truck driver for Pegasus Transportation of Jeffersonville, Indiana, is the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) latest Highway Angel. Brooks helped a woman and three children who were trapped inside their overturned SUV.

On February 15, 2010, at about 6:10 p.m., Brooks was driving along Interstate 94 east of Jamestown, North Dakota, when a female driver passed him. He estimates she was going approx. 70 mph and that the temperature was about -20. Unfortunately, ice was everywhere, and the woman’s vehicle soon began sliding. She overcorrected, lost control, and flipped the car onto its side into the median.

Brooks and another truck driver stopped to help. Brooks plunged up to his hips in snow when he approached the median. He could see that the woman had a baby and two other young children with her. Scared and distraught, the victims were attempting to kick the window out. Brooks and the other driver helped by pulling the window forward while the children simultaneously kicked from the other side.

Once the kids were free, Brooks noticed they had no coats, so he took them inside his warm cab to wait until paramedics arrived. “It took 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. That’s a really long time for little kids to wait in such freezing cold weather. I was happy to help and hope someone would do the same for me or my own family if we ever needed it,” said Brooks.

For the kindness he showed that day, Brooks received a Highway Angel lapel pin, certificate, and patch. Pegasus Transportation also received a certificate acknowledging that one of its drivers is a Highway Angel.

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