THE WINNER
Page 52
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MITCHELL
WILLIAMSON
driving for Starr Roadways • Mitchell Williamson from lbstock, Leics, is as modest as most genuine heroes seem to be. But the courage he showed as he was travelling home on the M25 on 15 March 1996 earned him the title Heroic Truck Driver of the Year 1996.
It was around 16:00hrs when Mitchell saw an explosion on the other side of the road as a lorry ploughed into three cars, rupturing the petrol tank of one of them. "I pulled on to the hard shoulider," he recalls. "The traffic was crawling so I ran across the three lanes and jumped the central reservation. By this time a crowd had already gathered by the burning car and the driver could be seen slumped over the steering wheel. But the doors were jammed.
"People were shouting— 'get him out, get him out'— and I screamed for a jack handle to try and smash a window. I knew he was alive because he had sat up and looked around.
"Then the smoke changed direction and I could see enough to finally get open the rear, offside door. But the fire was everywhere; the back seat was on fire, the roof lining was on fire and so was the inside of the driver's door.
"Once I got his seatbelt undone I put one knee on the back seat and one knee on the floor, I got my arms under his shoulders and pulled with all my weight.
"I pulled him out over the top of his headrest and a paramedic helped me drag him to the crash barrier."
• After a week in hospital, the crash victim was declared Fit. Mitchell, shrugging off singed hair and clothing, got back in his truck and went on his way. Now he is £1,000 richer but the experience has left its mark.
"It's strange," I can't remember anything about the journey home afterwards, but I can see myself in that car thinking 'this is it for me'."