TORONTO, Ont. — “One of us isn’t coming home tonight.”

The words trucker John Irish posted on his Facebook page Feb. 3 came true that night after fellow truck driver Lindsay Findlay lost his life just hours prior near Whitby, Ont. on Highway 401.

On Nov. 9, the Ontario Trucking Association recognized Findlay by posthumously presenting the Arnprior, Ont. native with the Bridgestone-OTA Truck Hero award during its annual executive conference in downtown Toronto.

“We are very proud for what he did,” said Findlay’s wife, Sandy, during the award presentation. “We are proud he saved the other driver and possibly more drivers on the road that night. That was just his instinct to put people before himself.”

Lindsay’s truck crashed into a guardrail the night of Feb. 3 when he was cut off by an impaired driver. Instead of slamming into the driver’s car, Lindsay was able to limit the impact by maneuvering and braking before eventually losing control and hitting the guardrail.

He died on the scene.

“A more inexperienced driver would have done something different and perhaps more people would have been killed or seriously hurt,” said Derek Crosby, Lindsay’s employer with D&J Transportation. “He was definitely a hero. Even without this, he was a hero.”

Following the crash, Irish and fellow truck drivers organized a rally in the community of Arnprior to support the Findlay family, including acting as a convoy at Lindsay’s funeral.

“I think he would have absolutely loved being sent off that way,” his daughter, Brittany, said. “They all came together for him that day. It’s amazing that out of something so tragic could come something so beautiful.”

“Lindsay’s story is certainly tragic and shows us the catastrophic results of impaired driving,” added OTA president David Bradley. “But it’s also a story about a resilient, loving family and the incredible truck drivers who rallied around one of their own. It’s stories like this that show how trucking is made up of passionate communities and is a dignified way of life only a truck driver can truly understand.”