His wife and co-driver Janet Filiczkowski was piloting their C.R. England rig along I-90 west of Sioux Falls when she saw a car carrying Jeff Bern and his daughter Abby cross four lanes of traffic and plunge into a pond. She called her husband out of the sleeper compartment. Filiczkowski dressed and ran a quarter-mile to the scene.

I dove right in because I saw Abby pounding on the car’s back window. My only instinct was to get her out of the car as soon as possible. In situations such as that, seconds count.”

Filiczkowski was able to get Abby to safety, but could not save her father.