Texas welder called ‘highway hero’ for stopping unconscious driver | Texas
A Texas man driving on a highway recently reportedly parked his truck in front of a car with an unconscious man behind the wheel, gradually slowed it with his rear bumper and eventually stopped it to avoid what could have been a major accident.
René Villarreal-Albe’s good deed was captured on a dramatic cellphone video recorded by his wife, Andrea Walker, and then shared online by his sister, Cortney Trinidad, as reported by Texas news outlet Kens 5. The video and the action-movie-like story behind it brought widespread attention to corners of the Internet dedicated to seeking positive news, generating comments that hailed Villarreal-Albe as a “hero of the highway.”
Villarreal-Albe was driving his truck on San Antonio’s Loop 410 with Walker as a passenger when they both spotted a sport utility vehicle weaving in and out of traffic — as well as crashing and bouncing off a concrete barrier.
The couple realized the motorist in question was unconscious and couldn’t stop the truck, so, Walker told Kens 5, “we took action.”
Villarreal-Albe – who makes a living from welding – beat the unconscious driver with his truck on which he had just fabricated and installed a sturdy bumper. The welder then slowed himself and the unconscious driver until they came to a complete stop, allowing nearby traffic to pass safely by.
A passerby who happened to be a nurse and had deduced that there was a medical emergency quickly stopped and began performing CPR on the unconscious motorist.
Emergency services, called to the scene, then arrived to take the motorist to hospital. He was breathing and had a pulse on the way to the hospital, although he was in critical condition, Kens reported, citing a fire department spokesperson.
Although he had no training to perform a type of maneuver that police typically refer to as a precision immobilization technique, Villarreal-Albe later told Kens that he had the confidence to have both a sturdy enough truck and the “good critical thinking” needed to defuse the danger an out-of-control car posed to motorists, including him.
“I just saw someone who looked like they… needed help,” Villarreal-Albe said.
Villarreal-Albe added that he hoped people would rush to help him if he urgently needed it. And he described how relieved he was that CPR performed on the unconscious motorist restored some of the color he had clearly lost.
“It was worth it,” Villarreal-Albe told the station.
Cortney Trinidad told Kens that her brother’s instinct to protect those around him came from his experience of “a difficult childhood” alongside four sisters.
“He had always taken care of us when it wasn’t necessary,” Trinidad was quoted as saying by the station. “So I’m not surprised by that at all.”
