Although Clark Messenger of Suffield has been an accident-free driver for FedEx for nearly 29 years, he will be honored by the company next week for something very different: potentially saving a life.
FedEx is flying Messenger and his wife Nicki to its headquarters in Memphis on Tuesday to accept the Humanitarian Award for saving the life of a Berlin car dealership worker who was seriously injured in a forklift accident.
Messenger called for help when he saw how badly the man was hurt, and then stood by him until an ambulance arrived. But more importantly, when Messenger saw the parked forklift begin to roll back down the uneven parking lot on a track to possibly run over the victim, he ran over, leaned against it, and held it back until other people could chock the wheels.
“Looking back, it all happened really quickly,” 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 good friend Matt Auchy sees it a little differently.
“That's Clark, that's just what he does,” Auchy said Friday. “I've known him since kindergarten and he's one of my best friends on the planet. He's humble and has a kind heart, and he has no idea how rare that is. He's always been that way.”
FedEx agrees and will take the Messengers on a two-day tour of its sprawling headquarters. The company will honor him and a dozen other employees on its payroll of more than 400,000 members and give the Messengers a tour of its high-tech package-sorting operation and flight hub.
“The Humanitarian Award recognizes employees who serve others and demonstrate behavior that goes above and beyond basic community responsibility,” FedEx said. “Employees are recognized for coming to the aid of those facing life-threatening situations, personal tragedies and adversity.”
Over the years, the company has paid tribute to employees who did something dramatic during their workdays: prevent a crime, alert panicked apartment tenants that their building was on fire, or perhaps stopped to help injured motorists in traffic accidents.
In Messenger’s case, on January 11, he was driving his truck on his regular route from Bradley International Airport to deliver heavy freight to various corporate clients along the I-91 corridor. He’s been on that assignment for the past 20 years and knows most of his clients by name. At Acura of Berlin, an auto dealership on the Berlin Turnpike, he was delivering a car engine and was ready to leave in his truck when he saw something go wrong.
“I had pulled up to the garage door, one of their guys got a forklift and came and got it off the back of the truck and signed it,” Messenger said Friday. “I was sitting in the truck looking where I was going and I looked in the mirrors before I drove away and I saw the guy laying behind me in the parking lot.
“I jumped out to see what he was doing and saw that he had fallen off the forklift and he was quite hurt. I knelt down where he was trying to get up and I knew he wouldn’t be able to, so I ran in and told people to call an ambulance.
“As I knelt down to tell him help was on the way and to stay calm, I saw the forklift roll a little bit. It had stopped and was rolling back toward him, and I saw that it couldn't move anymore,” Messenger said.
“So I stood up and leaned against the forklift, I was dead weight,” said Messenger, who weighs 220. “I was able to hold it with my own weight, I'm a bigger guy. And then there was a commotion, some people came and we blocked the wheels.”
Help arrived shortly afterward 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 severe.
“I think he was in a bit of shock,” Messenger said. “I went back a couple months ago and he still wasn't back at work.”
The general manager of Acura Berlin could not be reached to provide further information about the victim or the prognosis for his return to work.
It was the most dramatic event in a career spanning nearly 29 years, Messenger said.
“A lot of things happened, but fortunately nothing with injuries to a person. I have seen some things driving, there was a fire in the truck, but this has never happened before.”
Born on April 17, 1973, Messenger took a part-time job delivering packages for FedEx 22 years later while preparing for a career as a police officer. But the job grew on him, and he never left.
“It’s 29 years in October, same location, same people at the airport that I started working with, great group of guys,” he said. “I never left. July 17, 1973, is also the first day of FedEx. And with my name, Messenger, it’s kind of destiny that I work there.”
Auchy said his friend always wanted to help him.
“Three quarters of the world would have just driven on and left him behind. Or they would have taken their phone, filmed it and posted it for likes,” Auchy said. “Matt is one of the guys helping.”
