Highway Hero award for quick thinking truckie | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

Every time Shamos Hunter drives past a certain point on State Highway 5 he remembers the night he found 12 teenagers flung across the road after the van they were travelling in crashed into a bank.

He drives past that spot at least 20 times a week - sometimes as often as 10 times a day in his job as a truck driver - and says he still has flashbacks of the scene.

"Every time you drive past you think about it, you think about what happened."

He was first on the scene on the night of Saturday, July 17. He stopped his truck and rang emergency services.

He flicked his lights to alert an approaching driver and called out a warning on his CB radio, a warning the driver of the approaching truck, Greg Thompson, heard in time to stop his vehicle.

Mr Hunter and Mr Thompson got out of their vehicles and checked each of the teens, staying with them until emergency services arrived.

Mr Hunter attended the funeral of Jesse Howe, who died from injuries he sustained in the crash, and said he met a few of the boys who were passengers in the van. "It was quite good just to know they were okay.

"It's just unfortunate Jesse passed away."

Yesterday Mr Hunter was presented with a Beaurepaires Highway Hero award for his quick thinking and courage. The award is open to professional truck, bus or coach drivers who perform brave, heroic or humanitarian acts in the course of their work.

Keith Raymond, whose son Benjamin was one of the teens in the crash, nominated Mr Hunter for the award.

His nomination read: "Shamos was the first on the scene of a horrific van crash just south of Rotorua in the early hours of Saturday, 17 July, 2010. Shamos flicked his lights and radioed to another approaching truck driver to warn him of the carnage on the road, preventing further injuries to the 12 teenagers spread across the road, one of whom was my son Benjamin.

"Shamos and the other driver Greg Thompson then rang 111, blocked the road to secure the scene, then rang the mother of one of the injured boys on the road, and then went and counted how many accident victims there were and checked their condition (including putting the first boy in the truck to keep warm).

"If it were not for Shamos' excellent response to the emergency, warning oncoming traffic of the crash, there would no doubt be many more injuries, possibly deaths. Thank you Shamos for your quick thinking, from a grateful father."

Beaurepaires regional sales and account manager Shayne Phillips presented Shamos with the award - a certificate and a stainless steel coffee thermos - and praised him for keeping a "cool, level head" and not panicking when he was faced with 12 bodies lying in the road.

Tributes from other grateful family members have been posted on Facebook. Delwyn McKenzie wrote: "Thank you Shamos ... because of your actions and quick thinking on this night I still have my sweet angel Codie with me ... I am so grateful to you."

Mr Hunter said the attention he had received since that night had been overwhelming.

"It's been unexpected. You just help and that's the end of it, you just hope everyone gets home safe and sound," he said.