MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS — A truck driver who single-handedly stopped a disoriented wrong-way motorist on Interstate 70 in Madison County last Saturday jumped out of his rig, ran down the slowly moving van, yanked open the driver’s door, and grabbed the steering wheel to bring it to a stop, then disappeared before anyone could thank him.
Illinois State Police confirmed a disoriented driver traveled three miles the wrong way on eastbound I-70 near State Route 4 on August 15 before the intervention. Witnesses Cammi and Greg Pierce said they nearly got hit and could see the van driver was slumped over the wheel, apparently suffering some kind of medical episode.
“My husband started honking. I started waving my hands to try and get his attention,” Cammi said. They considered ramming the van with their own vehicle to stop it when the truck driver acted first.
He pulled his big blue rig across the lanes of traffic, jumped out, ran to the van, which was moving slowly and drifting onto the grassy shoulder by that point, wrenched open the driver’s door, and grabbed the wheel. Greg Pierce ran over from his own car to help get the van fully stopped. When it was over, Greg turned around to find the trucker.
“I look around to thank the truck driver, and he was gone,” he said.
Video captured by Cammi shows the truck appeared to be hauling for Amazon and had what looked like “JB” markings on the cab, but no other identifying information could be confirmed. FOX 2 reached out to multiple trucking companies and Amazon without success in locating the driver.
The Pierces posted the video on social media hoping the trucking community can help identify him.
“Our intention is literally just to have the social media community help us find this driver so we can thank him too,” Cammi said. “It was just really impressive that he had so much human compassion to jump out of his semi and risk his own life and ran that van down and saved that man from getting killed and possibly several others.”
Anyone who recognizes the driver or the truck is encouraged to share the video.
Interviews courtesy of local media.
📸 Image(s) used under fair use for news reporting.
