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‘An amazing moment’: Team drivers
rescue motorist from burning car
Wendy Miller
wendym@thetrucker.com
KENESAW, Neb. — Most truck drivers
spend the better part of the year over the
road. In the overall calculations of the total
minutes on the road, 36 minutes doesn’t
seem very significant.
For Hirschbach Motor Lines Inc. drivers Ed
and Tracy Zimmerman — and one very lucky
motorist — on a late spring morning along a
West Virginia interstate, it only took 36 minutes
for several lives to be changed and one to
be saved.
The Zimmermans, a team-driving married
couple from Kenesaw, Nebraska, wouldn’t
normally have been in West Virginia that day
in May 2019, the couple said, noting that the
route is one of the less traveled for them. Ed
was sleeping as Tracy took her turn at the
wheel. While traveling on Interstate 77 near
Beckley, West Virginia, the couple arrived on
the scene of a fiery crash.
Tracy stopped the truck, as another motorist
who had stopped to help, approached the
window, telling them that a man was stuck
in the burning car. Tracy woke Ed and they
sprang into action, grabbing their fire extinguisher,
and heading toward the car without a
second thought.
“When that man said that (someone) was
still trapped in the burning vehicle, I’m like,
‘We gotta get him out,’” Ed said. “I don’t know
how yet. I haven’t seen it yet, but we gotta get
him out.”
Features
The Zimmermans, with the help of the other
motorist who had stopped to assist, were able
to pry the car door open with a crowbar and
pull the man from the driver’s seat. Then, the
driver revealed that he had a firearm and ammunition
in the car.
“We all just kind of looked at each other
like, ‘We gotta move, and now,’” Ed explained.
By this time, the small fire extinguisher
from the Zimmermans’ truck had been exhausted
— and it would likely never have
completed the job anyway. They grabbed
the driver by the waistband of his pants and
pulled him 25 feet or so farther from the car,
just as a turnpike courtesy vehicle arrived
and parked between the burning vehicle and
the group.
“[The courtesy officer] got out of the car
and within just minutes, even seconds, you
hear the ammunition popping off, and then you
hear this big sizzle and a hiss,” Tracy shared.
“And then the explosion, as the car went flying
in the air.”
Tracy said shortly thereafter the first responders
arrived on the scene and treated the
driver’s minor injuries, carried him to the
hospital, put out the fire and cleared the road.
The Zimmermans’ work was done, and they
climbed back into the truck and got back on
the road. When Tracy had parked the truck, she
never changed her ELD status. The clock had
been running, and showed that the incident had
only taken 36 minutes.
See Moment on p28 m
Courtesy: Ricky Davis
The Sonic in Fordyce, Arkansas, has a menu tall enough to reach the window of a truck. There
are also stairs for the carhop to climb in order to be eye level with the driver when delivering
his or her food in the dedicated truck lane.
Wendy Miller
wendym@thetrucker.com
VALLIANT, Okla. & FORDYCE, Ark. —
The town of Valliant, Oklahoma, has a population
of only 800 people. The town might not be
big, but when it comes to truckers, the owners
of the local Sonic have huge hearts.
Julie and Tommy Dorries are lifelong residents
of Valliant and have long known the benefit
of the logging industry to their small town.
With a paper mill located only a few miles away,
big truck traffic through the area is constant.
After spending the better part of the last
two decades giving back to their community
by bringing life to old buildings and attracting
businesses to their small town, the couple
opened a Sonic in 2013. Tommy said it took
the couple about 10 years to close the deal on
bringing a Sonic to town.
“Valliant was not real trucker-friendly, but
we have a lot of truck traffic,” Tommy said.
May 1-14, 2020 • 25
Courtesy: Hirschbach Motor Lines Inc.
Ed and Tracy Zimmerman of Kenesaw, Nebraska were one of the first vehicles to arrive at the
scene of an accident in Beckley, West Virginia. The two helped to save a motorist who was
trapped in his vehicle.
Small-town hospitality: Oklahoma, Arkansas Sonic locations prioritize
truckers with accessible menus, routes and at-the-window service
“There’s no way a trucker can do business at
Sonic if they can’t get to it. We had truck traffic
and we have plenty of property, so why not
use it?”
That’s exactly what Tommy and Julie did:
They installed a route around the Sonic wide
enough for an 18-wheeler to drive through.
The creation of the route was special to Julie
because her dad drove a log truck for several
years. The big-truck route was dedicated to
her dad, Jimmy Provence, or “Okie” as he was
known on the CB radio.
Tommy said the piece of property the couple
purchased for their Sonic had plenty of
room for an extra route. The only adjustments
were placing a menu board at the height of a
truck window.
“No Sonic had a trucker route, so we went
ahead and did it,” Tommy said. “This is a logging
community and always has been.”
See Sonic on p27 m