A Toyota Camry, in a fit of road rage, cut off a semi-truck driver on the clock. Given a choice to hit several cars and avoid the Camry or literally drive off the I-610 loop overpass, he chose to save others.

Local media hasn’t yet called this semi-truck driver a hero but after reading a tweet from the truck driver’s niece on his heroic act, I too, am calling this man a hero. Earlier this week (Jul 3, 2019) a Schneider truck driver succumbed to his injuries after bravely choosing to drive off I-610’s Ship Channel Bridge in a last ditch effort to avoid a Toyota Camry that cut the truck driver off. Hitting the Toyota Camry would’ve triggered a chain reaction collision resulting in massive damage to several cars.

The official statement from Houston police via Commander Patty Cantu is that

We received a call around 8:23 A.M. that an 18-wheeler had gone over the bridge. When we came out to the scene, we found the 18-wheeler over the ramp into one of the tanks. Everything’s been secured and we’ve notified all the relevant parties if anything toxic had drained to ensure that the community was safe.

A witness stated that a smaller vehicle cut off the 18-wheeler so we’re going to try to determine if that’s true or not. That’s when he veered off the bridge in order to avoid hitting the vehicle.

Unfortunately, during the rescue efforts, the truck driver succumbed to his injuries.

Sad Update: HPD now says big rig driver has died during rescue attempt | Truck fell off 610 bridge https://t.co/AUKBe3CAp4 #KHOU

— Doug Delony (@DougDelonyKHOU) July 3, 2019

And here’s the tweet from this truck driver’s niece below.

my uncle decided to drive off the bridge instead of causing a massive accident with his 18 wheeler he is by far the bravest person ever and i still can’t believe this has happened. please watch when youre driving . RIP marcos i love you soso much https://t.co/QMkEOyirrn

— z (@karenzjasso) July 4, 2019

Her niece also shared a heartwarming video of her uncle trying out at a local singing competition.

this was literally one day before his accident he was auditioning for a contest and i’ve never seen him so excited im so proud of him he was so talented pic.twitter.com/AX2iG3u401

— karennn (@karenzjasso) July 5, 2019

Details on why this Toyota Camry cut the semi off are few and far between but if you’ve driven on any freeway, you’ve seen it happen a hundred times, some driver with a chip on their shoulder decides that he’ll pick a road rage fight over some meaningless misunderstanding with a semi-truck driver.

Most of the time the smaller car gets away with it because they have much less to lose, they know they’re dealing with someone’s livelihood and with someone who won’t risk hitting smaller traffic in their way.

But a couple of times, as dozens of Youtube videos will show, physics takes over and the semi-truck can’t stop fast enough resulting in ruined days and thousands of dollars of insurance claims from both parties.

It’s a trend that has to stop. You can’t pick fights with semi-truck drivers over something, 99 out of 100 times, was your fault to begin with.

You’re causing undue stress, increasing their likelihood of getting into an accident, and putting both your lives in danger.

As this driver’s niece shows, you’re also messing with someone’s husband, father, uncle, brother, and friend.

Please, by kind to our semi-truck drivers and give them the space they deserve.