Early afternoon on Wednesday, December 2, Madison County 911 Dispatchers received a call about a reckless semi driver northbound on Highway 81 at the Platte County line. Deputies caught up with the tractor trailer near Madison using their lights and sirens, when they became concerned as the truck wouldn’t stop. Madison County Deputy Todd Volk was working that day and knew something didn’t sound right.
“Deputy Kruid said he got up beside, just to look at the driver, and see if he could get his attention better, and said he [the truck driver] just had the blank stare on his face. Something wasn’t right,” Sgt. Volk stated.
Several more deputies and state troopers joined the pursuit hoping to stop the driver.
“As we got closer to Norfolk, the vehicle began to slow down and we were coming in on Highway 81 past the airport,” said Sgt. Volk.
As the tractor trailer barreled towards Norfolk, police in the city were already making plans in the event the truck went over the viaduct into the city’s biggest intersection. It was at that point, right before the river bridge that Deputy Volk knew something needed to be done.
“As he came by, I could see the driver’s head slumped down and felt he was not conscious and it popped in my head that we need to get this vehicle stopped. At that point in time, the truck was traveling about 20 mph, I jumped back in my patrol vehicle, punched it and got up in front and jumped out and jumped up and grabbed the hand railing and the mirror on the side of the truck and hit the breaks. When we got in the truck, the driver was sitting there and I mean we found out later he
was a diabetic and was having a diabetic reaction. His blood sugar was very low at the time,” said Sgt. Volk.
Volk’s boss, longtime Madison County Sheriff Vern Hjorth, said Volk risked his life to save another.
