MONCTON, N.B. (June 12, 2003) — A Moncton truck driver who ditched his tractor-trailer in order to avoid a head-on collision with a mini-van has received the 2003 Award of Valour from the Moncton Transportation Club.

The Moncton Times & Transcript reports the incident occurred on Oct. 16, 2002, when Roger Sampson, an owner-operator with Midland Transport, noticed a mini-van approaching him in the westbound lane while enroute from Montreal to Moncton.

“With only seconds to react and ignoring any danger to himself he consciously veered his 18-wheeler sharply to the right. Although his actions caused him to ditch and incur damages to the tractor-trailer, there is little doubt that had he not acted so unselfishly, the driver of the mini-van, a 40-year-old man from the Fredericton area, would have been killed or at a minimum suffered serious injury,” the Transportation Club recounted in a news release.

Meanwhile, the club also named Edmond Keith, an employee of Armour Transport in Moncton, the recipient of the Award of Excellence for his dedication to the transportation industry.