TORONTO — There’s a teenage girl alive today, somewhere in the Toronto area, because a truck driver named Tim Ferguson, who drives for Guelph, Ont.,-based Mackinnon Transport, saved her life.

t happened last February, around noon. Ferguson was southbound on Highway 400 near Barrie and about 200 meters north of Highway 88 (near the Husky truck stop), he spotted a young girl, standing on the shoulder of the road, hands in the air, and toes to the pavement.

He knew something was up and began braking.

By the time he stopped about 20 feet north of her (he reckons she was about 17 years old), she had jumped into his lane, according to the police report, in an attempt to commit suicide.

He leapt from his cab to see if he could help, guided her back to the shoulder and just as she was calming down she darted out into traffic again, past his truck and into the busy southbound lanes of the 100-km/h expressway.

“She was wildly hysterical,” Ferguson recalls. “I’ve ridden bulls all my life and I know I wouldn’t have been able to calm this girl down.”

Ferguson, risking his life, went after her, slowing cars and stopping traffic, until he reached the young woman, talked her down, and waited with her until the police arrived with an ambulance which took her to hospital.

By doing so, he not only saved her, Ferguson staved off what could have been a multi-vehicle highway fatality

In retrospect, Ferguson says what he did bordered on the irrational, but that’s typical of heroes. “If I’d thought about it, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” he commented.

And in honour of his heroics, Ferguson was named the 2007 recipient of the Bridgestone Firestone Canadian Truck Hero Award at the Ontario Trucking Association’s annual convention, which runs from Thursday, Nov.15, to Friday, Nov., 16th and the Toronto Congress Centre.

Ferguson is the 51st driver to be thusly honoured.

“A hero, by definition, is a person who commits a remarkable act of bravery, displays courage or strength of character,” said David Scheklesky, General Manager, Commercial Truck Tires, for Bridgestone Firestone Canada.

“Tim Ferguson certainly fits this description. His professionalism, compassion, and complete unselfishness at a time of crisis were truly extraordinary.”

Afterwards, in acknowledging that out there somewhere, there’s a family with a live daughter and they probably don’t even know about Ferguson’s heroics, Ferguson’s boss and President and CEO of MacKinnon Transport Inc. Evan MacKinnon commented proudly, “you never know how you’re going to affect the people you meet every day, so you should try to make each encounter a positive one.”

The Bridgestone Firestone Canadian Truck Hero Award winner is selected from the various nominees submitted by Canadian trucking companies. All submissions are required to include a police statement corroborating the nominated driver’s actions.