The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) named truck driver Darrin Gillmore from Barrie, Ont., a Highway Angel for stopping to help rescue people from a fatal, multi-vehicle accident. This is Gillmore’s second TCA Highway Angel award, according to a news release. He drives for Bison Transport out of Winnipeg.

On May 2 at 4 p.m., Gillmore and his trainee, Omen Li, were traveling near Sintaluta, Sask., when they came upon a two-vehicle accident with three people involved. The accident had taken place at the corner of Hwys. 606 and 1. Gillmore estimates he and Li came upon the accident within 60 seconds of it happening.

“I had my student pull over, so I grabbed my fire extinguisher, my bolt cutters and my first aid kit,” Gillmore. “We went to the accident scene and there was a lady that was fatally injured.”

A man involved in the wreck was out of his vehicle, so Gillmore and Li helped him lay down and get comfortable until emergency medical services arrived. Then the men helped disconnect the horn on one car and disconnect the battery to prevent a fire. There was a teenage boy in the accident, who had been traveling with his now-deceased grandmother.

“We tried to keep the kid calm — obviously he knew his grandma was dead,” Gillmore said. The men helped him out of his vehicle and tried to keep him calm and assess his injuries. 

“I’ve been to many, many, many accidents and I always stop and I always help — I just do my best.”

Darrin Gillmore, Bison Transport driver

“We comforted him until the EMS showed up and they took over from there,” he said.

Gillmore has been driving trucks for 20 years and has been at the scene of about three fatalities a year, he estimated.

“I’ve been to many, many, many accidents and I always stop and I always help — I just do my best,” he said.

The Bison Transport driver was honored with a TCA Highway Angel award in 2017 for extinguishing the fire at the site of a head-on crash, pulling out an injured motorist from the passenger vehicle and saving his life.