Nov 14, 2008 5:12 am US/Mountain
Hero Truck Driver Gets Pay It 4ward Gift
Written by CBS4 special projects producer Libby Smith
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Jorge Orozco-Sanchez in October.
CBS
The idea behind CBS4's Pay it Forward Colorado project is to give $1,000 to a Coloradan (or group of Coloradans) who will use the money to change someone else's life. Submit your ideas
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. Below lies CBS4's Nov. 13 report. FREDERICK, Colo. (CBS4) -- Jorge Orozco-Sanchez is back at home with his own little girl now, but nothing in his life is back to normal.
"I did my best. I couldn't do any better," Orozco-Sanchez told CBS4.
The trucker is being called a hero after he pulled two young children from a burning car.
The accident happened at the end of October. Orozco-Sanchez, 30, was driving west on Colorado 392 north of Greeley when a grey SUV drifted into his lane. The truck driver tried to brake and swerve but the collision was inevitable. Melissa Nicklas, 27, died, but her two young children were saved when Orozco-Sanchez pulled them from the wreckage.
"I try once and I couldn't so I try again and I save the second girl, but when I went back for the mom ..." Orozco-Sanchez broke off as he described his attempts to rescue Nicklas at a new conference shortly after the accident.
Now, he doesn't talk about the accident.
"Right now it's still fresh what he experienced what he went through that's why he has me talking for him," said Suzie Orozco-Sanchez, Jorge's wife.
Orozco-Sanchez isn't sleeping, he isn't working and he can't get the image of Nicklas out of his mind.
Truck driving is how Orozco-Sanchez supports his family. His truck was totaled in the accident. Now his family is struggling to pay the bills.
That's where the Colorado trucking community comes in.
"Truckers (are) a family. It's people we see every day on the road," said retired truck driver and friend of Orozco-Sanchez, Jose Sanchez.
Orozco-Sanchez has a reputation as being friendly and helpful, so when he needed a helping hand his truck driver friends asked to pay it forward -- $1,000 to help Orozco-Sanchez get back on the road and get his life back on track.
"He's a real good person. The way he talks and the way he lives his life. He's a real good family man," Sanchez added.
Orozco-Sanchez is getting better slowly. He drives the family pickup truck occasionally now, but is still worried when other drivers get too close.
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