Rene Villarreal-Albe is being hailed as a “highway hero” on social media for using his truck to safely stop a driver having a medical emergency.
SAN ANTONIO — Cortney Trinidad said she’s not at all surprised social media users are calling her younger brother a “highway hero.”
Trinidad said Rene Villarreal-Albe was raised with four sisters, so he has always been a protective person who gets things done.
Trinidad, who shared a video clip of her brother trying to save a man’s life Thursday, said he has always been resourceful.
“We had a rough childhood so he had always taken care of us when he didn’t have to, so I’m not surprised by this at all,” Trinidad said.
The video clip offers a harrowing view of a dangerous moment on Loop 410 during the noon hour Thursday when a driver having a medical episode can be seen weaving in and out of traffic and crashing into and bouncing off of a concrete barrier.
Villarreal-Albe said he immediately recognized the danger.
“I just saw somebody that looked like they were in some type of medical condition and it made me feel like I needed to help,” Villarreal-Albe said, adding “I have good critical thinking and I just thought about it and I decided to just get in front of him and slow him down.”
Andrea Walker is Villarreal-Albe’s wife, and she was in the passenger seat recording video. The intense clip shows Villarreal-Albe gently getting ahead of the impaired driver with his truck and then slowing down until both vehicles came to a complete, safe stop while traffic whizzed by.
But not everyone kept going. Villarreal-Albe said when he started to pull the man from his SUV, a nurse recognized the emergency and stopped to help.
“This lady started CPR right away, and he lost color, but he came back and that made it worth it. I’ve never seen someone being brought back, but it made everything worth it,” Villarreal-Albe said.
Of his role, Villarreal-Albe said “I have a heavy duty truck and it was just perfect timing, and it worked out great for everyone because he needed CPR right away.”
Walker said “We were in the very far left lane and he was in the lane right next to us and he almost actually ran into us and we slowed down.”
Walker said when the man kept swerving they realized something was wrong.
“When we finally came up to him, he was unconscious and that’s when we realized, OK, he’s not gonna stop and he could hurt more people, so yeah, we took action,” Walker said.
Villarreal-Albe is a welder by trade, and he said he had recently fabricated and installed a heavy-duty rear bumper on his truck. He said took action because he believed his fortified truck could safely resolve the danger.
“I installed that bumper two months ago and it held up very well. There’s no body damage and I’m happy. I’m satisfied even if there was damage it wouldn’t matter. He needed help,” Villarreal-Albe said.
With thousands of comments and compliments streaming along with the video, Villarreal-Albe said he is awed by the outpouring.
When some suggested he should wear a cape because he’s a hero, Villarreal replied “I wear a welding cap, but it is surprising. It’s really shocking. I mean there’s a lot of good people out there that just think just the way I do. It’s really nice to know.”
Villarreal-Albe’s older sister said the outpouring of emotion has been uplifting.
“It just makes me so happy because I’ve seen that side of my brother for as long as I can remember,” Trinidad said, adding “I keep reading the comments to see everything people are saying about him because social media is just so filled with so much bad stuff and it’s nice to see something good.”
As for the condition of the driver in trouble, because of confidentiality issues a fire department spokesman could only say that they were dispatched to the scene for a cardiac arrest. Notes from the call indicate the man was breathing when he left the scene, but while enroute to the hospital his condition was upgraded to a Priority One case, meaning the possibility of a life-threatening condition.
The people who were directly involved in his care and the internet community at large are holding the man in their hearts.