UPS driver honored for heroic actions at deadly crash
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IDAHO FALLS — A UPS driver was honored by the American Red Cross for his actions in assisting with a deadly crash last July in Jefferson County.
Coy Danner was driving west on County Line Road near 4500 East on July 10 when he saw a truck and car suddenly crash into a canal full of water.
“It was a pretty gruesome scene,” Danner recalls. “The truck and car were buried in the water and they were hooked together. The truck held the car by its bumper and I thought the car was going to go down the stream.”
Danner pulled over and ran to the vehicles. A man and a woman were inside the truck and 52-year-old Wayne Walker was driving the car.
“I hurried and jumped on the bed of his truck and went down to the car. I saw there was a guy in there and he wasn’t responsive so I lifted him up,” Danner tells EastIdahoNews.com.
Danner pulled Walker from the car and held onto him. Walker had a faint heartbeat and some bystanders helped the UPS driver carry the victim to safety.
Walker was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center where he died a week and a half later.
The American Red Cross presented Danner with the “East Idaho Workplace Real Hero” award during a luncheon Thursday afternoon at the Hilton Garden Inn in Idaho Falls.
Danner says despite the tragic outcome, he is thankful he could help.
“I’m normally not in the area at this time. Something just put me there that day and time,” Danner says. “I didn’t think I was going to wake up that day and be a hero.”