An Anchorage tow truck driver has received an award of heroism for his actions to help a woman being crushed by a wall of ice that fell on her truck as she drove on the Seward Highway last April.
Amanda Lawton was driving north on the Seward when a giant ice wall let loose and crushed her truck. Other drivers who stopped to help told dispatchers she was struggling to breathe.
Nick Webb of Webb’s Towing & Recovery, Anchorage, AK, was headed to free a stuck vehicle when he saw the accident. Webb extended his truck boom over the crushed roof of Lawton’s pickup truck, passed a cable through a break in the windshield, than used a winch line to lift the roof to get it off Lawton. A fire captain said at the time the move may have saved Lawton’s life.
Webb received the American Towman medal at a ceremony in Baltimore in November. The medal is the industry’s highest honor and recognizes those who put their life on the line to help others.