Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, right, presented the Carnegie Medal to Danny Lee Tiger, of Ardmore, Okla., in a Feb. 11, 2020, ceremony in Oklahoma City.
On June 26, 2019, when Tiger and his wife, Amie, were living in Ada, Okla., they responded to the scene of a headon collision on a highway around 1:45 a.m. Despite his wife’s pleas urging him to step away from a burning truck, Tiger, then 46, gripped the frame of the damaged driver’s door and bent it downward until he was able to reach inside and grasp the driver’s head and an arm, as flames burned against the front windshield and a small explosion occurred at the vehicle’s front end.
He fully freed the man and, with help from his wife, pulled the driver off the highway. Although the driver suffered serious leg injuries, he was not burned.
“You’re a great Oklahoman,” Stitt told Tiger, who works as an administrator.
Photo courtesy of Stitt’s office.