Hero lorry driver helps save man’s life after police incident along M1 in Derbyshire

Dan Shillito was driving his lorry towards Bristol on Saturday, September 6 - before jumping into action to help save a man’s life amid an incident along the M1.

The 34-year-old, from Hull, was near junction 29 at Heath when he spotted a man dangling from a bridge over the motorway.

Dan said: “I was heading down the M1 as I was coming towards the end of my shift and there were some notice boards telling traffic to slow to 20mph as there had been an incident.

“As I got to the bridge, I thought there’d be a car accident or something like that. There was a traffic officer on the other side of the road - he was waving at everyone to stop. Once I’d stopped, I saw the traffic officer walking over to the bridge - that was when I saw this person’s legs dangling down from the bridge.”

Dan’s first thought was to drive his lorry underneath the bridge to, if the worst-case scenario unfolded, help break the man’s fall. He ended up on top of his lorry, aiding the police by supporting the man until officers could bring him to safety.

He said: “I put my window down and shouted to ask if they wanted me to move my truck underneath the guy, so if he falls, he’ll fall onto the top of the container rather than the road. He ended up moving a car and trailer in front of me - I then pulled forward, got underneath him and jumped out.

“His arms were through the railings and the police had hold of his arms. The police asked if there was any way that I could get onto the container and support him from underneath. I got on top of the container and put his feet on my shoulders - he was shouting down to say thank you and I was telling him it was alright.

“I held him up for a few minutes until the police came down from the bridge and managed to get on top of the lorry. They took over then and I just waited for everything to get sorted.”

Dan expressed his sympathies for the man involved in the incident, and said that he hoped his recovery was progressing well. He added that the idea to move his lorry was inspired by a video he had seen previously - and helped stop the man from suffering a potentially fatal injury.

He said: “I don’t know why it popped into my head. It was probably on some sort of social media, but I’ve seen lorries do something similar in the past, and it just clicked. Even if he had fallen, if my lorry is underneath, he’ll only fall around five feet compared to around 30 or 40 feet.

“If he’d landed on his head, it potentially could’ve killed him - but with the truck there it would’ve been very minimal damage, and he was hoisted down.

“A good thing has happened in a bad situation - I’ve had a lot of messages and people trying to get in touch, but I’m just a normal person.”

A Derbyshire Police spokesperson added: “We received a call concerning the welfare of a man on a bridge, close to junction 29 of the M1, at about 6.30pm on Saturday, September 6

“Officers were deployed to the scene and the man was led to safety with the help of a member of the public. Nobody was injured and the man was taken to hospital to be checked over.

“A stretch of the motorway was closed whilst emergency services dealt with the incident and was later reopened.”