Trucker Named TCA Highway Angel for Helping Crash Victims 

February 14, 2025

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has named truck driver Tommy Burgoon from Wapakoneta, OH, a TCA Highway Angel for stopping to help during a horrific early morning crash in Ohio. Burgoon drives for ABF Freight out of Fort Smith, AR.

It’s an incredible story: Burgoon pulled up on the scene of an accident which was a head on-collision  between a car that was going the wrong way and a semi truck traveling northbound on I-471, next to exit 2, in Cincinnati, OH. It was around 1:30 in the morning.

“I came up on a wreck that just happened,” he said. “I’m pretty sure they were going 70 miles an hour driving straight into each other. I just know (the car) was on the wrong side of the highway and went head-on with that truck.”

Burgoon rushed out of his truck to the car that was on fire, helped extinguish the flames that were surrounding the driver’s feet, extinguished the remaining flames on the front of his car, cut the seatbelt of the driver, and got him to safety with the help of first responders. The driver had serious injuries, including a severely hurt left arm and facial gashes.

“I got his seatbelt undone but I don’t think there would have been any way we could’ve pried him out of there,” the 10-year truck driver said. “He was in there pretty good.”

Burgoon said his Army training kicked in and that he was happy to stop and help because he would want someone else to do the same for a member of his family.

“You do what you can do,” he said. “There’s no way I could just leave him in there; it’s absurd to me to even think that.”

Since the TCA Highway Angel program’s inception in August 1997, nearly 1,500 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 Burgoon.

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