After a Sept. 23, 2021, accident in Waverly, Nebraska, a 39-year-old warehouse manager entered the cab of a burning dump truck to free its unconscious driver whose foot was caught between the seat and the center console. Flames had entered the passenger compartment of the truck and were issuing from between the seats when Joseph P. Cockerill of Lincoln, Nebraska, responded to the truck. Cockerill fully entered the cab, knelt on the man’s torso, and freed his trapped foot. He then backed out of the cab and he and another man pulled the 41-year-old driver from the truck and brought him to safety. Flames, as high as 20 feet, grew to engulf the truck and spread to the grass below. The man was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries sustained in the crash, but he was not burned.
