John Meredith of Osoyoos is being awarded the Medal of Bravery by Governor General David Johnston. Photo supplied.

 

 

 

 

An Osoyoos man is being awarded a Medal of Bravery by Governor General David Johnston for rescuing a man from a burning truck.
John Meredith was informed of the award nearly five years after he pulled the trapped man from the truck, seconds before it exploded. He expects to be presented with the award at a ceremony in Ottawa in June with his wife and two sons attending.
Meredith, a retired policeman from the Toronto area, was driving with his wife Kathy in their motor home from Galveston to Laredo, Texas in the middle of the day on March 4, 2008.
Suddenly, he saw a flatbed truck, which was coming towards him on the other side of a divided highway, swerve into the guardrail and topple over the edge, plunging into a ravine and river below.
“I thought they were all dead when I saw it flip,” said Meredith.
He doesn’t know what caused the driver to go off the bridge, but he guesses the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
He also suspects the truck may have ruptured a gas tank when it crossed the guardrail, because it was burning after it landed.
The truck landed on its roof with the cab on land and the flatbed in the river.

Meredith pulled their motor home off the road and ran down to offer assistance.
Another driver, wearing a Stetson, also ran down to help. When they saw the truck driver crawl out, they slowed their pace, thinking he was safe.
Then they saw him trying to jam at the window with a four-inch by four-inch board as they learned the man’s cousin was still trapped inside.
The three men struggled unsuccessfully to free the cousin while the truck burned and tires started popping. The man was wedged in by the crushed truck cab.
They decided to make one final attempt with the truck driver prying with the board and with Meredith and the other man pulling on the trapped cousin.
On the count of three, all pulled and the trapped man came flying out.
“It was our last try and he came out,” said Meredith, who says that with his police training, his instinct was to help without thinking about it.
When they dragged the man, the other motorist wanted to stop, but Meredith insisted on continuing until they were about 100 feet from the burning truck.
Seconds later, the truck exploded.
“They both lived,” said Meredith, who doesn’t know the exact extent of the injuries, but believes the trapped man may have broken a leg while being pulled free and the driver likely had head injuries.
“Actually, considering the type of accident it was, the injuries were not that severe at the time,” he said.
Although there were hundreds of people watching from the road, no one else offered to help, though many snapped photos with their phones.
“What else is new?” said Meredith. “I’m used to that. People don’t want to get involved. Down in the States I think they think about liability,.”
When local police found out Meredith was from Canada, they just told him to be on his way with no consideration to calling him back as a witness.
So why did it take five years for Meredith to be awarded the medal?
Meredith, who is humble about the incident, wasn’t looking for recognition, but he mentioned it to his son Iain, who was with the Canadian Forces and was living in Ottawa at the time.
The Merediths, who were in the process of moving from Whitby, Ont. to Osoyoos, knew their former Member of Parliament, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
Their son informed Flaherty’s office.
From there the matter was referred to the office of the Governor General.
With family members moving, the matter fell off the radar for a while.
Last year, however, Meredith heard from the RCMP that they were looking into the incident to verify the facts.
Then, in February this year, while they were in Yuma, Arizona, the Merediths picked up a voice message left on their home number by the Governor General’s office.
When they spoke to the official, they were informed of the news.
While this is the first time Meredith has ever received an honour like the Medal of Bravery, it’s not the first time he has faced life-and-death situations.
As a policeman, he faced people with guns, knives and other weapons, and as a rookie cop, he once tried to rescue a drowning boy, who, unfortunately, didn’t live.
His wife, Kathy, says Meredith is modest and is uncomfortable with the attention.
“It takes a certain type, and I think he was very brave,” she said. “He did what needed to be done and he never thought twice about it.”
Asked how much his response to the Texas accident was a result of his police training, Meredith replied: “Probably all of it. Even if I wasn’t a policeman, I probably would have stopped. If I was a bookkeeper or something, I probably would have stopped anyway because that’s just the way I’ve been brought up.”