Bernie Butler
Heroic Bernie Butler risked his life to rescue a man from a devastating
explosion after a lorry collided with a gas tanker on the M6 motorway.
Lorry driver Bernie was travelling southbound when he witnessed another
lorry, driven by Philip O'Dowd, career across the central reservation and
crash head on into a chemical tanker.
The resulting smash created a fireball which sent 50ft flames roaring
into the sky, melting the road beneath it.
As cars screeched to a halt
on both sides of the motorway Bernie, 68, knew he had to act.
With the mangled wreckage
twisted and burning at temperatures of more than 1,000ºF, Bernie parked
his articulated lorry across three lanes of traffic to ensure no one
could pass.
He then scrambled out of his truck and ran to help two trapped men.
As the five chambers of the chemical tanker exploded in sequence, Bernie
hauled Philip, 43, from his cabin and extinguished the flames that had
engulfed his body with his hands.
Despite Bernie's best attempts to reach trapped driver Graham Ceney, he
sadly died.
As onlookers shouted at him from all directions, concerned about further
explosions, Bernie continued plugging Philip's wounds with gloves and
shrinkwrap from his sandwich box for 45 minutes until paramedics arrived.
"I can remember the whole incident as if it was yesterday," Bernie, from
Kirkby, Merseyside, recalls. "It was like something out of a movie scene
but happened right in front of me. I could see the men in the cabs were
on fire, but I didn't even think, I just ran.
"I yelled at other drivers, who had stopped, but they were screaming at
me to leave because the flames were so high."
More than 100 people had to be led to safety after the accident, which
closed the motorway for two days. Bernie retired after a triple heart
bypass last April, but is still in touch with Mr O'Dowd, who was badly
burned and lay in a coma for five weeks following the crash.
"That man saved my life and I will always be in his debt," says
father-of-two Philip, from Cannock, Staffordshire. "What he did for me
and my family that night was really heroic, and after seeing and hearing
how severe the crash was, I can't believe he risked his life to save me.
"I only have vague memories of that night, but everything I do now, I can
only do because of Bernie Butler."
Praising Bernie's bravery, Kevin O'Leary, Chief Superintendent of the
Central Motorway Policing Group, says, "Bernie's actions on that night
were truly heroic.
"To risk his life is extremely commendable, and that he has handled
himself with such modesty is a testament to the sort of man he is."