Timothy VanNostrand named Goodyear Highway Hero

A New York timber trucker has been recognized as a ‘highway hero’ after using his 18-wheeler to help corral a shooter who had injured a police officer.

It happened that on Interstate 88 in June 2023, Timonthy VanNostrand was preparing to pass a state trooper who was approaching a car he had just pulled over.

VanNostrand is the owner and operator of his own logging transport company in Northville, New York, and is well-acquainted with dangerous work; although the risks he faces don’t typically involve gunfire.

“It happened so fast,” VanNostrand told Fox News Digital. “I wasn’t 100% sure what I saw at first, but I saw the trooper kind of skip sideways a little bit.”

Then, VanNostrand explains, he saw the driver draw his gun and start shooting out of the back window of his car at the trooper which started a 12-minute ordeal where “bullets were flying.”

VanNostrand then pulled his logging truck in front of the shooter’s car, cornering him against the side of the road, and ensuring the shooter was stopped. Fox didn’t specify if he was taken into custody, wounded, or killed by the troopers and the eventual backup that arrived.

VanNostrand was later honored by the New York State Police and by The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company as a “Highway Hero.”

“The Goodyear Highway Hero Award is one way Goodyear recognizes the importance of the commercial trucking industry, which helps move 72.5% of the U.S. economy’s goods, according to American Trucking Associations,” Joe Burke, vice president of Goodyear North America Commercial Business, told Fox News Digital.

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“The purpose of the Highway Hero program is to bring more awareness and appreciation to the powerful impact that commercial drivers can have on the roads, individuals’ lives and communities.”

VanNostrand was awarded a cash prize and a ride in the Good Year blimp.

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He told Fox that it felt like such a long time when “you’re sitting there” listening to gunfire, allowing plenty of time for second guesses, but “it turned out it was the right decision.”

“Most of the people I know and work with would do the same thing,” he said. “We all look out for each other, and 99% of us are looking out for everybody else too.”

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