Dave Sturmey, named Highly Commended ‘Hero of the Year’ by FTA Van Excellence

FEBRUARY 2019

We’re extremely proud to share with you the news that our Technical Support Engineer, Dave Sturmey, has been named ‘Highly Commended’ in the FTA Van Excellence ‘Hero of the Year’ award category.

At the Honors lunch on 7th February 2019, Dave was named Highly Commended Hero of the Year.

As part of his role Dave spends many hours travelling across the UK to visit customers depots – over the past year he has unfortunately witnessed two major road traffic accidents, but his quick thinking, calm demeanour, and first aid training has allowed him to assist on both occasions.

The first incident took place on an early winter morning as Dave was driving down an A road in Staffordshire; a car overtook him dangerously just before a blind bend, and as Dave followed he witnessed that car crash headfirst into an oncoming vehicle.

As a result of the collision one of the vehicles left the road and ended up in a field in flames. Dave left his van and rushed over to the burning vehicle and pulled the driver free and away from immediate danger. Having stayed with the driver until the emergency services arrived, Dave then got back into his van to head to a customer depot to start his days work! The police were able to gain the dash cam footage from Dave’s van and he may well have to go to court to give evidence during the upcoming prosecution.

The second incident

The second incident took place whilst Dave was driving 3 colleagues back from a supplier meeting in Burnley, in our company crew cab van.


Traffic on the M6 was travelling slowly due to an incident further down the motorway, when out of nowhere a vehicle collided into the rear of the crew cab van. Dave stopped the vehicle and got out to investigate, where he and a colleague discovered a gentleman slumped over the steering wheel of his car. It was obvious that he was in a serious condition and at this point Dave’s first aid training kicked in; he sat the driver back from the airbags and immediately started to administer CPR. Dave shouted instructions to his colleagues and continued to work with the driver for over 20 minutes. After this time a Doctor who had been in a passing vehicle joined him; both men continued to administer CPR for a further 15 minutes until an ambulance was able to reach them. Even in the presence of the emergency services, Dave stayed at hand to assist where he could.


Despite being in the middle lane of a busy motorway with cars, vans and lorries were passing on both sides, Dave kept all involved focused and calm. Unfortunately the driver did not pull through, but with the clear and calm approach from Dave the police could communicate to the gentleman’s family that he had been given the best chance of survival.

Dave has gone above and beyond, and is a credit both to himself and to Qi. We’re delighted that he has been recognised for his actions.

To read more about the awards given out at the Honors Lunch, click here.

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