Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/696225
Spotlight 18 July 2016 BestDriverJOBS www.bestdriverjobs.com C hris baker doesn't think he did anything special. The Cowan Systems driver says repeated- ly that when he saw an overturned minivan catch fire, he didn't think; he just reacted. His response — putting out the fire and pulling an unconscious driver to safety — comes as no surprise to those who know him. "That's the kind of guy he is," says Scott Ehlen, Baker's terminal manager. "He puts other people before himself and his own concerns." Forty-seven-year-old Baker, a regional driver whose home terminal is in West- field, Massachusetts, was driving along Route 18 just outside East Brunswick, New Jersey, around 4 a.m. on May 16, 2015, when he spotted flickering lights ahead and realized an accident had just occurred. He saw a minivan flipped onto its passenger side and a bread-delivery truck that had also been involved in the crash. As Baker was stopping, flames erupted near the minivan's engine. He says he completely forgot his three-point stance. "I just jumped out of my truck and grabbed my fire extin- guisher," he says. Another man, Adam Livow, also ran to assist. Together, they put out the fire. The mini- van's passenger had escaped from the vehicle, but the driver was unconscious and hang- ing by his seatbelt. Baker and Livow unfastened the man's seatbelt, grabbed him by the arm and shoulder and pulled him from the van. Worried the fire would reignite, Baker sug- gested they move the man farther away, into a grassy area. "Then I just started talking to him, A Humble Hero East Brunswick, New Jersey, honors Cowan Systems regional driver Chris Baker for roadway rescue Andy Vega (Director of C&S, New England), Chris Baker (Driver), and Eddie Diaz (Driver Retention Specialist)