UPS drivers help save man trapped under semi near Tonopah

Two Reno-based UPS drivers helped rescue a man they found gravely wounded Feb. 20 while driving down a rural stretch of U.S. Highway 95 outside of Tonopah.

UPS in a news release this week identified the drivers as Julie Jefferson and Spencer McVay.

According to McVay, he and Jefferson were on their way back to Reno from Dallas during last month’s deadly weather-induced power outages when they happened upon a jackknifed semitrailer on the dark, two-lane highway.

When they pulled up, they saw the truck’s driver pinned under a tire, his leg pinched.

The man told the drivers he had pulled over and gotten out of his truck to use the restroom, but forgot to activate the parking brake. He tried to get back inside his truck, but got stuck underneath the massive vehicle, McVay said.

In shock, McVay said he and Jefferson worked together to move the man from beneath the truck and apply a tourniquet to his leg using the man’s belt. Another good Samaritan stopped to help and also prayed over the man, McVay said.

McVay helped direct traffic as Jefferson held the man’s hand in the cold, trying to keep him calm as they waited for first responders to arrive. The National Weather Service said the area’s low temperature that morning was 20 degrees.

“I still think about it and I wonder about him a lot,” McVay told the Review-Journal on Tuesday. “I hope all is well with him.”

According to the news release, the man is recovering and passed along his gratitude to Jefferson and McVay.

A previous version of this story said it took 45 minutes for first responders and a flight crew to arrive. Paramedics arrived within about 12 minutes, according to Nye County’s director of emergency management, and provided care until a flight crew arrived.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.