Even if he has driven without accidents for FedEx nearly 29 years ago Clark Messenger of Suffield will be honored by the company next week for something entirely different: potentially saving a life.
FedEx is transporting Messenger and his wife, Nicki, to corporate headquarters in Memphis on Tuesday to receive their Humanitarian Award for rescuing a Berlin car dealership worker who was seriously injured in a forklift accident.
Messenger called for help when he saw the seriousness of the man’s injury and went to stay with him until an ambulance arrived. But most importantly, when Messenger saw the parked forklift begin to descend through the irregular parking lot on a route that would possibly run over the victim, he ran over and leaned on it and held it until other people could chock the wheels.
“It all happened very quickly in hindsight,” Messenger told The Courant this week. “I really don’t think I did anything more than anyone else would have done. I would happily do it again.”
His brother-in-law and longtime friend Matt Auchy sees things a little differently.
“That’s Clark, that’s exactly what he does,” Auchy said Friday. “I’ve known him since kindergarten and he’s one of my best friends on the planet. He has humility and a kind heart, and he has no idea how rare that really is. It’s how he always was.”
FedEx agrees and will take the Messengers for a two-day visit to its sprawling corporate headquarters. The company will honor him and about a dozen other employees on its payroll of more than 400,000 members, and give Messengers a tour of its high-tech parcel sorting operation and flight center.
“The Humanitarian Award recognizes employees who reach out and help others by exhibiting behavior that goes beyond basic community responsibility,” according to FedEx. “Employees are recognized for rushing to the aid of people facing life-threatening situations , personal tragedies and misfortunes.”
Over the years, the company has paid tribute to workers who during their workdays did something dramatic: stopped a crime, frantically alerted apartment tenants that their building was on fire, or perhaps stopped to help drivers injured in traffic accidents. .
In Messenger’s case, he was driving his tractor on Jan. 11 on his regular route from Bradley International Airport to deliver heavy loads to several business customers along the I-91 corridor. He has fulfilled this task for the past 20 years and knows most of his customers by name. At Acura of Berlin, a car dealership on the Berlin Turnpike, he delivered a car engine and was in his truck getting ready to leave when he saw something go wrong.
“I had pulled up in front of the garage door, one of the guys got a forklift and came to get it in the back of the truck and sign it,” Messenger said Friday. “I was in the truck looking where I was going when I looked in the mirrors before leaving. I realized the guy was behind me, lying in the parking lot.
“I jumped up to see what he was doing and realized he had fallen off the forklift and was badly injured. I knelt down where he was trying to get up and I knew he couldn’t, so I ran inside and told people to call an ambulance.
“As I knelt down to warn that help was on the way and to remain calm, I noticed the forklift rolling a little. He had stopped and was rolling toward him, and I could see he wasn’t going to be able to move,” Messenger said.
“So I got up and leaned against the forklift, I was dead weight,” said Messenger, who weighs 220. “I could hold it with my own weight, I’m a bigger guy. And then there was a commotion, some people came and we put the wheels on.”
Help arrived a short time later for the seriously injured worker. Messenger declined to describe the injuries to the man’s leg to protect his privacy, but said the damage to one leg was extreme.
“I think he was a little bit in shock,” Messenger said. “I came back a few months ago and he still hasn’t returned to work.”
The general manager of Acura Berlin could not be reached for details about the victim or his prognosis for returning to work.
It was the most dramatic event in his nearly 29-year career, Messenger said.
“A lot of things happened, but fortunately nothing that involved injury to a person. I’ve seen some things while driving, there was a fire in the truck, but nothing like this.”
Messenger was born on April 17, 1973, and 22 years later he took a part-time job delivering packages for FedEx while preparing for a career in law enforcement. But the work grew on him and he never left.
“It will be 29 years in October, same location, same people at the airport that I started working with, a great group of guys,” he said. “I never left. July 17, 1973 is also FedEx’s first day. And with my name, Messenger, it’s kind of fate that I’m working there.”
Auchy said his friend’s willingness to help was with him the entire time.
“Three-quarters of the world would have just kept driving and abandoned it. Or they would pick up their phone, film it and post it for likes,” Auchy said. “Matt is one of the guys that helps.”
