SASKATOON –- Is N. Yanke Transfer actually a Prairie freight carrier or is it the secret headquarters for a league of Canadian trucker superheroes?

It’s a fair question after a second pair of team drivers (and the third and fourth drivers in total) in as many years were named Highway Angels by the Virginia-based Truckload Carriers Association.

Last August, team drivers Dave Woodman and Tony Rheault were traveling along Highway 17 near Blind River, Ont. when Woodman watched as a Ford Explorer crossed the center line and collided with an oncoming tanker. The Explorer was crushed next to a guardrail. 

Woodman pulled over and was the first on the scene. While keeping curious onlookers away, he began directing traffic around the crash site to protect the accident victims from further injury.

Within a few minutes he noticed highly explosive aviation fuel leaking from the tanker and realized it was covering the road. He and several other motorists then used five-gallon buckets to contain the flow.

While this was happening, Rheault ran to the passenger side of the crashed Ford and helped an adult female get out from behind the airbag.

According to a description of the event by TCA, the woman was conscious, but in shock, and covered in blood.

By now, other motorists had stopped to help, including a retired nurse, who treated the woman’s 77-year-old husband, who, trapped behind the wheel, had suffered severe injuries.

Rheault served as her assistant, retrieving a first aid kit from her car and handing the nurse medical supplies as needed. He also pushed back the shattered windshield so the nurse could better reach the man’s face.

Apparently, the couple had been on a family vacation with their daughter, son-in-law and grandchild, who were traveling in another car just ahead.

Emergency personnel arrived in 20 minutes and used the Jaws of Life to cut the driver out of the car. The man was rushed to hospital, but sadly died shortly thereafter.

The nurse later wrote to N. Yanke Transfer praising Rheault and Woodman for their valuable assistance.

"Please tell your men to be proud of their excellent emergency response to this stranger," she wrote. "I think if your men had not been as responsive and diligent as they were, then the driver more than likely may not have even made it to the hospital. I believe we kept him alive long enough to have … his family around him to comfort him and say their last goodbyes."

Rheault and Woodman are the second pair of N. Yanke team drivers to be recognized by the TCA for their actions.

In 2009, Jason Siddons and Paul Farrell, British-born team drivers hauling explosives, were commended by TCA for saving two brothers who were injured when their pickup truck swerved off the road.

Just a few weeks before that incident, Richard Rossnagel another driver with the same fleet, was named a TCA Highway Angel for assisting the passengers of an overturned SUV.

Rheault and Woodman speak modestly about their involvement at the accident scene. "When you have an accident like this and you start to attach families and relatives to it, it really starts to mean something. You realize that could have been my own parents," said Woodman.

Rheault, who dreamt about the incident for about a month afterward, said, “It’s just the way it is. I hope I can help someone again.”