Trucker W. Eddie Cassidy overcame his fear of the unknown to stop and help a woman stranded for hours in freezing temperatures.
Cassidy was traveling on I-20 near Augusta, Ga., around 2 a.m., when blinking hazard lights caught his attention. A vehicle was stopped on the side of the road, and Cassidy knew its driver must be chilled to the bone. The temperature was in the low to mid-20s.
“I was kind of scared myself to stop,” Cassidy, of Gaston, S.C., recalls, “but it was seriously cold that night … and my biggest concern was the weather.”
Weighing caution with his urge to help the stranded motorist, Cassidy pulled over and saw there was a single female in the vehicle. He didn’t want to frighten her, so he tried to approach her as professionally as possible, using his flashlight to illuminate himself. He spoke reassuringly to the 20-year-old woman, who was scared and shivering.
The woman explained that she had been stranded since about 9 p.m., and only one person had stopped – a law enforcement officer, who had told her he was off duty and could not assist her. The officer had left the scene without even making a phone call on her behalf. No one else had dared stop to ask if she needed help, despite the fact that the car’s hood was raised, the emergency flashers were blinking and the woman had attempted to flag down passing vehicles.
“She was disappointed no one had tried to help her,” Cassidy says. “It’s a sad situation [that nobody else stopped]
