PHOENIX — Three professional truck drivers — Jason Corino, Michael Dorsey and Daljit Sohi — have been honored by the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) as TCA Highway Angels of the Year for 2024.
Since TCA’s Highway Angels program began in 1997, nearly 1,400 professional truck drivers have been recognized as Highway Angels because of the exemplary kindness, courtesy, and courage they have displayed while on the job. To nominate a driver or read more about these and other Highway Angel award recipients, click here.
The drivers were honored Monday, March 17, at a special awards luncheon during TCA’s annual convention in Phoenix. In addition to a standing ovation, each driver will receive a complimentary EpicVue satellite TV package, which includes a 24-inch flatscreen TV, a DVR, and a one-year subscription to over 100 channels of DIRECTV programming.
Here are their stories.
Jason Corino, Melton Truck Lines
Jason Corino of Deltona, Florida, was honored as a TCA Highway Angel because of his actions during a roadside shooting that prevented other motorists from being injured.
On Nov. 29, 2023, at about 11:30 a.m., Corino was traveling on US 491 in Cortez, Colorado, when he noticed a car being driven abnormally, preventing him from merging.
The car passed Corino, along with three pickup trucks; then a police car passed, evidently in pursuit of the car. Corino later discovered the vehicle was involved in a “road rage” incident with the three trucks, and that police had been called for assistance.
A few miles down the road, law enforcement pulled the car over right in front of Corino. There was not a proper shoulder on which to park, so the stopped cars partially blocked the right line. Corino slowed and attempted to pass in the left lane.
“It’s just me, and the officer’s car in front of me and the suspect’s car in front of him, and I’ve got traffic behind me,” Corino said. “I got about 100 feet away and the kid got out of the car; then I heard the first two rounds (of gunfire). I slammed on my brakes right there to stop traffic behind me.”
Within seconds, Jason witnessed a deadly shoot-out erupt between the suspect, Jason Campbell, and the law enforcement officer, Cortez Police Department Sergeant Michael Moran. Fortunately, Corino was able to turn on his truck’s dash camera and capture the entire incident in a recording, which was later submitted to the police.
“I could see the bullets bouncing off the ground,” Corino said. “I stopped right there to protect the people behind me.”
Reports show that Moran died as a result of injuries sustained during the incident. According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Campbell, along with a passenger in the vehicle, were later contacted on private property at 7500 US Highway 160, where a member of the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and a member of the Cortez Police Department engaged him, resulting in an officer-involved fatal shooting of the fugitive.
Corino was a key witness regarding the roadside incident, and his camera footage was used in law enforcement’s investigation.
Michael Dorsey, Mercer Transportation
At about 10 a.m. on September 26, Michael Dorsey, a resident of Porter, Texas, was at an industrial park in Erwin, Tennessee, loading his flatbed trailer with piping, when he was told that floodwaters were rapidly approaching.
The town of Erwin was hit by flooding that devastated the region after Hurricane Helene made landfall, unleashing historic levels of rain.
The industrial park is just a few hundred feet from the Nolichucky River, which swelled with a rush of water comparable to nearly twice what cascades over Niagara Falls, according to USA Today.
As Dorsey finished loading up his flatbed, water was rising. A group of 10 people from a neighboring business approached Dorsey and asked if they could climb atop his truck to find refuge from the flood.
“I said, ‘Sure!’ So, I let everybody get on my trailer,” Dorsey said, adding that he also offered shelter to a frightened woman he calls “Miss Bertha,” allowing her to sit in his truck.
“She sat in the cab with me, and like 15 or 20 minutes later, we were overrun by water,” Dorsey said. “It flipped my truck. I ended up having to lift her out of my truck.”
As the water rose quickly, Dorsey and another man helped get Miss Bertha onto the flatbed trailer with the others.
The floodwaters were so strong that they separated the trailer from the truck and carried the 12 terrified hangers-on downstream. At one point, the trailer capsized, and Dorsey and the others floated in the water hanging onto the materials that had previously been strapped to the flatbed.
Just before the trailer capsized, Dorsey says, he was struck in the head by debris and lost consciousness.
“When I fell in the water, I guess it was so cold that it brought me back,” he said.
Dorsey and others rode the current until they were able to grab a bush in the flood and hang on. Eventually, a few members of the group were rescued by emergency personnel. Of the dozen people attempting to ride out the flood on his trailer, Dorsey, only six survived. Miss Bertha’s body has not been found, he noted sadly.
“The most terrifying part was just watching the water come, rise as we were just sitting, not knowing what to expect,” he said.
Dorsey, a former Marine, says he lost everything in the flood. In addition, he struggles with pain in his head, neck and numbness in his legs and feet.
“I can hardly sleep because I keep thinking about Miss Bertha and all of the people that died,” Dorsey said. “If I wouldn’t have been there, those people that survived wouldn’t have made it — it would have been impossible. God had me there for a reason.”
Daljit Sohi, Triple Eight Transport
Daljit Sohi’s story is one of showing kindness to a stranger.
On November 29, 2024, while traveling from Banff to Salmon Arm, Shailly James, from High River, Alberta, stopped at a rest area near Golden, British Columbia, to help her 4-year-old child. Unbeknownst to James, her purse fell out of the vehicle during the stop, landing on the ground. It contained $1,100, a gold chain, credit cards and her identification cards.
“I was not aware,” James said.
Sohi, a driver for Triple Eight Transport, witnessed the event and followed James in his truck in order to return the purse at her next stop.
“I followed the lady for three hours,” Sohi said.
James recalls that she noticed the truck following her, and that she was concerned. When she stopped to refuel at a gas station in Sicamous, Sohi approached James and informed her that he had found her lost purse. To her relief, everything in the handbag was accounted for and nothing was missing.
“I was so happy that, thank god, he found it,” James said. “Then I tried to give him $500 as a reward, but he didn’t take it.”
Linda Garner-Bunch has been in publishing for more than 30 years. You name it, Linda has written about it. She has served as an editor for a group of national do-it-yourself publications and has coordinated the real estate section of Arkansas’ only statewide newspaper, in addition to working on a variety of niche publications ranging from bridal magazines to high-school sports previews and everything in between. She is also an experienced photographer and copy editor who enjoys telling the stories of the “Knights of the Highway,” as she calls our nation’s truck drivers.
