'He probably wouldn't have made it.' Woman comes to the rescue of Amazon delivery driver
A Nash County woman helped an Amazon delivery driver who was having a medical emergency inside his van this week.
Video showed Bianca Ashe trying to comfort the man and calling in potentially life-saving help. It happened on Monday on the street outside Ashe’s home in the Guilford County town of Whitsett.
“Around 5:45 p.m., I heard my dogs barking, and so, I looked through my security system and I saw that there was the Amazon Prime truck,” said Ashe.
She didn’t think anything of it.
But when her husband got home two hours later, Ashe realized the van hadn’t moved.
“I looked to my husband, and I said something’s not right, something’s wrong,”said Ashe.
Ashe said they rushed outside and knocked on the van door. Through the window, they could see the driver lying down in the back.
“Then, we immediately just opened up the van door, and we saw this gentleman just lying in a puddle of sweat,” Ashe said. “He was shaking, he was really in a lot of distress.”
Ashe said they called 911 immediately.
While waiting with the driver, she said the man was also getting multiple phone calls to the van through Bluetooth. Video shows that she was able to answer one from someone who worked for Amazon, who told her the company had been trying to reach the man.
“I noticed that they needed me to tell them the address [where he was found],” Ashe said. “I’m unsure why they were unable to track where he was.”
Within minutes, first responders arrived.
Ashe said the man was taken to Alamance Regional Hospital and that EMS workers expected him to recover thanks to her actions.
“[The fire chief] said that if we didn’t call when we did call, he probably wouldn’t have made it,” Ashe said.
Ashe said after this incident, she believed Amazon needs to do more to protect drivers in case of an emergency.
“If you haven’t seen them move within maybe 20-30 minutes, there needs to be someone checking in, making sure that everything’s okay,” she said. “Especially since they’re out here by themselves.”
Amazon has not responded to WRAL News' questions about the medical emergency or a response to Ashe's concerns.
