Hubbard named Highway Angel of Year

Updated Nov 2, 2010

A company driver who saved the life of a man trapped inside a burning car has been named 2010 Highway Angel of the Year by the Truckload Carriers Association.

Shawn Hubbard, a driver with Ruan Transport Corp. of Des Moines, Iowa, will be recognized at the uDrove Humanitarian Bowl college football bowl game scheduled for Dec. 18 in Boise, Idaho.

In the early morning of Nov. 13, Hubbard was driving on I-60 in California when he saw a car fire in a ditch. Inside were the driver, who appeared to be dead, and a passenger who was alive but pinned.

Hubbard extinguished some of the flames. He then pulled the debris and collapsed roof off the car, allowing the passenger to escape. He pushed him up a hill to safety, seconds before flames engulfed the car.

The California Highway Patrol later presented Hubbard with a Certificate of Commendation. He also received an award from a Los Angeles County supervisor, as well as a certificate from Ruan.

β€œWhat Hubbard did was extraordinary, but even more incredible is the fact that throughout the entire event, hundreds of cars passed by on the busy seven-lane highway, but – other than the truck driver who originally called 911 and someone who tossed a second fire extinguisher down the embankment to Hubbard – not a single person stopped to help,” said John Kaburick, TCA chairman and president of Earl L. Henderson Trucking, Salem, Ill.