ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Two Canadian truckers have been named the latest pair of Highway Angles by the Truckload Carriers Association. Laurent Pennacchio and Olegas Milevskis, team drivers for Yanke out of Regina, Sask., are being recognized for helping a young family involved in an accident.

On June 29, Pennacchio was travelling on Highway 17 in northern Ontario, while Milevskis slept. After coming around a sharp curve in the road, Pennacchio saw a vehicle that had just been involved in a serious accident. A woman and two children were standing nearby.

Pennacchio pulled over and woke Milevskis up. The men gathered safety jackets and flashlights and then approached the vehicle, only to discover a large moose lying on the ground that had collided with the car.

The father, who had been driving, seemed injured, but was not moving and was still inside the vehicle. Quite shaken, the mother was attempting to describe the location of the accident to a 911 operator, but her unfamiliarity with the remote area was making it difficult. Pennacchio provided the details so that emergency personnel could find the scene quickly. Then, the drivers comforted the woman and asked her permission to take the two children out of the cold and into their warm truck. Pennacchio stayed with the kids while Milevskis assisted with traffic control and waited with the woman. Both men stayed on the scene until the accident site was secured by police.

“I would like to thank your drivers [for] their assistance at the scene,” wrote a constable of the Ontario Provincial Police to Yanke after the fact. “In this isolated section of highway – and certainly after dark – few people are willing to assist people in need. Cell phone service is spotty, which delays the response time of emergency crews, so any initial help is important.”