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Bravest of the brave

24th December 1983
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Page 28, 24th December 1983 — Bravest of the brave
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Dleon Bonaparte d it two o'clock in norning courage, :ourage of the oepared. And that's Anil( what these muming drivers layed to the utmost, in Sherriff explains PEOPLE we know will I a very special Christmas ear. Tom and Dorothy Cur-om Manchester will have to tell their family and Is over the festive season. ir Christmas started on Deer 13 in Gothenburg, which 3 festival of Santa Lucia. as the first recipient of the Vane Memorial Award. old the story of his bravery el December 10 and now, as of his prize, he and his wife in Gothenburg as guests of a. The send off for their trip done in style back in Engwhen Tom received his dish glass trophy from Chris the radio and TV personalovho was chairman of the ing panel.

ter the presentation, which attended by Mr and Mrs and family friends, the Curflew out of Heathrow to a • and very interesting few in sub-zero temperatures in den. Not for them just her hotel, but a cruiser red in Gothenburg harbour me their Swedish headters, and their floating, or N• their ice-bound, home for intire visit.

im Curran proved to be a ambassador for British 3rs during his visit to Volvo's

accident research unit. He discussed knowledgeably and from long experience, cab construction and comfort. He conversed about a wide range of topics, from seat belts to side guards. His hosts were obviously impressed — here was a man who knew his subject but still wanted to know more.

He spent all of four hours with the Volvo accident analysts and as well as learning, he imparted knowledge. The Swedes now know how to make a chip butty Manchester style. The culinary lesson over, Tom was then whisked off to an afternoon work session. The first stop was at an accident repair shop where Volvo accident unit have damaged vehicles repaired to factory standards.

The next leg of the journey took him to one of Sweden's largest hauliers, Bilspedition. This is a unit outside Gothenburg where bulk loads are broken down and drawbar trailers are pulled separately into the centre of Gothenburg. Tom's amazement at the size of the rigs had to be seen to be believed. Alongside his 10-ton Bedford, the rigid and drawbar 52-tonne Volvo F12s were to him the epitome of a juggernaut.

The last session of day one was a visit to — of all places, the police station. Here Tom was introduced to the hidden mysteries of breath testing and radar checking. Then he went in a police patrol car, which was ,suitably unmarked, and witnessed a speeding offence. When the car driver was pulled up he admitted driving at 75km per hour in a 50 area, "Because he admitted it the police added another 5km to speed, and fined him £50" related an amazed Tom back in the Delaware that evening.

His most traumatic experience was yet to come. Next day was the driving day, and Tom's apprehension over driving a Swedish 52-tonner on the wrong side of the road was obvious at dinner the night before. Almost unceasingly in his rich North of England dialect he brought up topics as wide ranging as fruit growing and gear ratios. He had a few sharp words to say about operators who ignore vehicle defective reports handed in by drivers. "Bluidy criminal" was his description.

Tom Curran is not one of the National Freight Consortium employee share holders, "It is against me principles" he says. Therefore, Tom's act of bravery was truly a case of looking after his employer's goods. We were all surprised to learn that insurance companies don't necessarily make ex gratia payments to the Tom Currans of this world, who protect £50,000 loads.

And so to Santa Lucia. The Volvo people wanted Tom and Dorothy to catch the Swedish mood. On the day of the festival at 6.30am, two school girls, and a tall Swedish blonde lady dressed in white robes and wearing a crown of lights and carrying ginger biscuits and hot punch awakened the Currans with beautiful renderings of hymns accompanied by one of the school girls playing the flute.

Such emotive experiences cannot be captured adequately by camera or pen. Indeed, they are such personal experiences, it would be an intrusion of privacy to attempt to do so. The memory of Santa Lucia is best left to Dorothy and Tom.

And now to that test drive. It is many years since Tom Curran handled a "big rig", and never has he handled an 80ft unit and drawbar loaded to 50 tonnes. His first reaction was a certain anxiety at being on the other side of the road which had a good coating of black ice. However, within a few minutes his confidence returned, and he acquitted himself very well indeed. The cab comfort and low noise level in the F12 impressed him beyond measure. How will his depot manager back at Roadline cope with a man who describes the F12 cab as "like being in the front room watching the TV"?

Tom is now back at Stretford, the great experience is o% is our first Mark Vane winner, and a worthy chc turned out to be.

That is how Tom Currar the festival of Santa Luci Tom only just made it by cent; that was how clo: judges judged the entries.

Fires played a big part entries, and as might t pected, tanker drivers feat all but one fire incident. training fits them well for c with situations which lesser mortals recoil in fee!

However, we had one tanker driver who braved rescue a family. He was brave, he reversed his into a front garden to get inferno!

We had one entry America. This driver cot. most be described as a mu maritan. His story is prc the worst example of ingra we have encountered.

Then there was the ur nate who found himself in in a fatal accident because good intentions.

These are their stories asked them all for photogr Some were bashful, others not photogenic. All in theii way were Samaritans, anc who enhanced the image I road transport industry.

CLIFFORD STANTON Clifford Stanton had eft the Rank Hovis Ocean depot at Birkenhead at abor o'clock on a Monday mor This should have been the of what he thought woul another routine week drivin 10-ton net.

Shortly after leaving the he was stopped by two yr women joggers who told that they had tried to raise alarm at a nearby house v., smoke was coming from or the upstairs rooms.

When Cliff looked down le saw both smoke and ming from the house. t delay, he backed his own the road, across the ant and into the garden of ise — smashing down the n the way.

roof of this truck was alayel with the first storey v so he and another got on top of the truck elped all 13 people he bedroom window to In the escape only one 1, a 13-year-old boy, was hurt when he slipped le truck.

Carty, who is the father .andfather to some of the :n, said: "We are very 11 to Mr Stanton and the They were my children wo grandchildren all rs. I heard the kids screamd the next thing there was rry by the front bedroom w. We were lucky no one Iled".

Stanton said: "I just acted tinct. I saw the flames in illway and I realised that edroom was the only a of escape."

)wing the rescue, the fire le took about an hour to ■ I the blaze. They too paid to the quick thinking of tanton. "It was a first class )Ie of public initiative," spokesman.

TONY HATTON x Wilkinson Limited of on House, London Road, iwater, High Wycombe, Anghamshire, nominated driver Tony Hatton in reition of his courage during rifying ordeal — the hijack ; lorry by an armed man. rny, who works at the Lex inson's Higham Ferrers dewas forced to make a 100 motorway journey with a pointing at his head, dice later praised Tony for bravery, and for remaining throughout the nightmar ish incident, despite death threats by his captor.

The incredible drama began mid-morning on Wednesday, April 7, following a £30,000 bank raid by two men in Bristol city centre. One man was shot by police during the getaway, but the second ran off on foot and forced a woman driver to hand over her car.

Several getaway vehicles later, the fugitive, who had been wounded in crossfire with police, escaped on foot through the grounds of Frenchay Hospital and spotted lorry driver Tony Hatton making a delivery at the hospital with his Cow and Gate lorry, a Lex Wilkinson Systemline contract hire vehicle.

The runaway leapt into the lorry, brandishing his gun at Tony's head, and forced him to drive to London. Ahead lay 90 miles of terror.

At one stage, Tony made a brave attempt to snatch the gun away, but the hijacker was too quick for him and threatened to kill Tony if there were "any more tricks".

To avoid endangering Tony, the police decided not to close in on the lorry and it wasn't until just south of Maidenhead that officers commandeered four articulated lorries and blocked the motorway. The hijacker forced Tony to crash his vehicle into the central reservation barrier, where the presence of armed police prompted the runaway to give himself up.

BRIAN BURGESS What should have been a routine journey for Texaco driver, Brian Burgess, turned into something of a drama recently.

On his way to make a delivery from the North London terminal, Brian came across a car, parked in a layby, with flames coming out of his bonnet.

Brian was out of his cab in seconds and, with the fire extinguisher always carried in oil-tankers, put out the fire.

The incident happened on the M25 at Maple Cross and Brian's actions earned him the praise of the car's driver, Robert Johnson.

"I was driving to work when the engine of my car caught fire," said Mr Johnson. "I pulled into the lay-by, but my troubles weren't over. I had to struggle to get out of my seat-belt before I could try to put the fire out. I'd really like to thank the guy who helped me. I thought the car might go up like a bomb."

After helping to put out the fire, Brian disconnected the car's battery — "the leads were caus ing the fire," he said — then got back into his cab and carried on with his Texaco delivery.

"My adrenalin hadn't run so much for ages. It was the Second World War and Korea all over again."

Mr Johnson said many motorists drove past his flaming car until a kindly petrol tanker driver stopped and extinguished the flames.

American-born Mr Johnson said, "I want to pay tribute to that guy."

WILLIAM DARDEN An unexpected blizzard paralysed much of the metropolitan New York area on February 11, 1983. In these situations there are more accidents than usual, cars are disabled in high snows and people are stranded by lack of fuel. These are the circumstances that faced William Darden, a driver for Mercedes-Benz of North America's corporate headquarters.

The storm thrust Darden into a hero's role in what turned into a 16-hour ordeal that began rather routinely on that Friday afternoon when he drove MBNA President Walter Bodack home to Long Island in New York State (some 50 miles) from the head office in Montvale, New Jersey.

After reaching their destination four hours later (it's normally a little more than an hour's drive), Darden began his return trip to New Jersey in the Mercedes-Benz 300D turbo diesel.

Having moderate success driving to Long Island, considering the worsening weather conditions, Darden decided to take the same route back. Three hours later, at lam, he came to a stop on the Westchester CrossCountry Parkway, a multilane express highway 40 miles from where he started, with eight other cars.

While stuck on the snow-covered roadway, Darden talked

with others stuck on the road. A 79-year-old man was stranded as were two sisters (one with an 18-month-old baby) whose cars had run out of petrol. The Mercedes driver invited all of them to get into his cab because it had a full tank of diesel and they could keep warm in the heated car.

By 3am the elderly man became exceedingly nervous and wanted to get out and walk to a telephone. All were concerned about their families thinking the worst about them in the blinding snow, and they wanted to contact them to let them know what was happening.

Darden convinced the group that he was the one to search for a telephone. He took their phone numbers and headed down the snow-filled roadway searching for a telephone. After wading through knee-high snow for miles along the limited access roadway, there was no telephone available. His feet were wet and numb from walking in the snow which was higher than his boots.

After a few more hours of recovering from the telephone search, the 79-year-old dropped a bombshell on the group. He told them he had a heart condition, and that he had to take pills at certain times on a rigid schedule, and needed water to take the medication.

Darden calmed the elderly man by assuring him that it was not necessary to go out in the storm to find water — they had all they needed thanks to the snow. The Mercedes driver had disposable cups in the car which he filled with snow and placed near the car's heater. That relaxed the man enough so that he slept for several hours.

By daybreak the storm had subsided and the sun came out, but the group was still stranded.

With the morning light, Darden left the safety of the car to look for a telephone — this time in the opposite direction. He eventually found a phone and called the old man's wife (it took him 15 minutes to convince her that her husband had not died) and also the husband of one of the sisters who said he had a four-wheel-drive vehicle to reach his family.

The lady's husband eventually arrived with two five-gallon cans of petrol, allowing the old man to continue his trip home as well as the two ladies and the infant. Darden told the husband to go ahead and take care of his family.

The husband returned within an hour and a half with some food and coffee to make the wait for a tow truck a bit more "relaxing". Police had assigned numbers to snow-bound cars as part of a priority system for two truck operators to use in freeing stranded drivers. Darden was given number "66" on the fourmile highway.

It took until 12.30pm for Darden's car to be dug out and he arrived back at the company's New Jersey head office about 30 minutes later, an exhausted snow warrior.

"Throughout it all, I never slept," he said. "The whole time I was really more concerned about the people with me than I was about myself. I wasn't looking for a feather to be placed in my cap — that's not why I did what I did. I had an opportunity to help someone. It could very easily have been my family out there with me, too.

"In 20 years of driving, I have never experienced anything like this before, but I do feel good about what I did and I would definitely repeat my efforts if the situation presented itself again."

WALT MELLORS Only one day after attending a company fire-fighting course, Walt Mellors of Esso found himself putting what he had learned into practice.

Walt, a driver at Nottingham Terminal, was making a delivery to the Granada Service Station on the northbound side of the Ml, when he noticed smoke coming from the bonnet of a Sherpa van parked at the pumps about three yards away.

"The driver was busy filling up and was totally unaware of the impending danger," said Walt, who grabbed his dry-powder extinguisher from his trailer and ran to the van, just as the engine burst into flames.

After a few good bursts of powder the blaze was extinguished, and Walt ensured that the fire had not spread to the other cars on the site. Walt (aged 57) has been employed as a driver at the terminal since 1970. He has competed in the CM Lorry Driver of the Year competition on several occasions. In 1981 he was awarded the trophy for the best older driver.

D. F. PEVIER Mr G. C. Sayers of Maidstone nominated D. F. Pevier of Sittingbourne.

He has been employed for a number of years by Securicor, Maidstone, Kent, and his experience was in the early hours of the morning. At about 2.30am on the motorway he found a motorist in front of him in trouble. He stopped his vehicle, and in order to be of assistance had to back his vehicle on to the hard shoulder. While doing so, a fast moving car from behind, unable to pull up because of the black-ice condition of the road surface, crashed into Mr Pevier's vehicle. The car driver was killed.

The consequence of this was manifold. Suffice to say, at the subsequent court case, the Judge while considering Mr Pevier's position as being morally defensible decided that in law there was a legal mistake, and Mr Pevier to be one third responsible for the outcome and the deceased two thirds responsible. Damages against Mr Pevier were 02,000.

JOHN JOHNSTON On July 14, 1983, driver J. Johnston was travelling along the M61 towards Leeds, when he saw a car on fire on the opposite side of the carriageway.

He stopped his lorry and went to the assistance of the car driver who had only a small fire-extinguisher. John helped contain the fire with the extinguisher taken from his own tanker, and remained with the car driver until the Fire Brigade arrived on the scene and took over. DUDLEY BASS A company-sponsored firefighting course gave Northampton Esso driver Dudley Bass the necessary skills and confidence to rescue a trapped driver from the blazing wreckage of his car.

Dudley came upon the accident as he was driving his car in the direction of Corby, about a quarter of a mile from the Hannington crossroads, on the A43 Northampton to Kettering road.

The engine compartment of one of the vehicles involved caught fire, and the flames quickly spread.

The trapped driver was unable to free his feet. The man was suffering from shock and was unable to release himself from his seat belt, which had probably saved him from fatal injury moments earlier.

"Many of the onlookers," said Dudley, "stood frozen to the spot. I think I would have done the same thing as I had never witnessed such a fire before, but my previous training spurred me on."

Dudley reached inside the driver's window, and managed to unfasten the rear off-side door; the driver's door was damaged and unable to be opened. Dudley was then able to enter the car and unfasten the seat belt. A young man helped Dudley pull the injured man — who weighed around 14 stone — through the window of his car door, leaving his trapped shoes behind. They then moved him away from the burning vehicle, as there was a danger of the petrol tank exploding. By the time fireman arrived the car was completely burnt out.

Dudley is emphatic that his response stemmed from his recently acquired knowledge of the rudiments of fire-fighting.

"It gave me the courage to go forward before it was too late. The fire already had firm hold and it was too late for fire e; uishers. The most impi thing was to get the driver "The incident further lighted the validity and me the course," said Dudley.

PETER EXLEY TNT nominated Peter E who is a collection and de driver at Bradford. Peter w. tempting a delivery to a pi house in the Leeds area, IR no response. As he was alp( return to his vehicle to fill card for posting through th terbox advising that deliver been attempted, he heard he thought was a moi sound.

Knowing that an elderly lived there he tried to gain but everything was locker immediately went to the ne police station and advised of his suspicions. policemen returned with and gained entry by forcin side door, whereupon found the lady unconscioth very ill. Emergency ser were contacted and the lad' rushed to hospital. After C days she was released from pital and it was genera) that Peter's prompt action well have saved her life, W glad to report that she has fully recovered.

These are the reco of entries for 1983. I% we are open to recei entries for the 1984 award.

Our readers cover thousands of miles every year and empli thousands of drivers Sometime in the nex year it could be that witnessed courtesy I courage on the road. want to hear of it als Nominations for ti 1984 award can be submitted at any tim throughout the year preferably as soon af the incident as possil and with a head and shoulders, black and white photograph of nominee. The addres Mark Vane Memorial Award, Room 304C, Quadrant House, TN Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS.


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