On Monday, Governor Pete Ricketts awarded Nebraskan Frank Axiotes with the Carnegie Medal, the highest award for civilian heroics in the United States and Canada. Axiotes received the prestigious honor for his actions in a Sept. 2020 three-vehicle crash.
On Sept. 25 of that year, Axiotes was driving on the I-80 in Lincoln when he witnessed a semitruck cause a crash involving two other vehicles. Axiotes immediately pulled over and ran to the crash scene as flames began to engulf the scene. Axiotes pulled a nine-year-old boy out and worked with another passerby to help retrieve the boy’s 21-year-old sister.
Axiotes gave intense descriptions of his experience in rescuing the pair that involved explosions mere feet away from him and the trapped passengers. All told, four people were taken from the site of the crash to the hospital suffering only minor injuries.
Axiotes was humble upon receiving the award, saying, “I did not act alone. So, this is something that I want to make sure everybody is aware of: I was not the only one that stopped to help. There was another gentleman that also stopped to help, and the two of us together were able to pull [the woman] out. I don’t know what happened with that other gentleman, but the two of us, together, did that.”