Even though he’s driven accident-free for FedEx for nearly 29 years, Clark Messenger of Suffield is being honored by the company next week for something entirely different: potentially saving a life.
FedEx is flying Messenger and his wife, Nicki, to corporate headquarters in Memphis on Tuesday to receive its Humanitarian Award for rescuing a worker at a Berlin car dealership who was severely injured in a forklift accident.
Messenger called for help when he saw how badly the man was injured, then went to stay with him until an ambulance arrived. But more importantly, when Messenger saw the parked forklift start rolling down back down the uneven parking lot on a course to possibly run over the victim, he ran up and leaned into it and held it back until other people could chock the wheels.
“It all happened really fast in hindsight,” Messenger told The Courant this week. “I really don’t think I did anything more than what anyone else would’ve done. I’d do it again happily.”
His brother-in-law and lifelong friend Matt Auchy sees it a bit differently.
“That’s Clark, it’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 has a humbleness and a kind heart, and he has no idea how truly rare that it. It’s how he’s always been.”
FedEx agrees, and will be bringing the Messengers to a two-day visit at its sprawling corporate headquarters. The company will honor him and a dozen or so other employees from its more than 400,000-member payroll, and will give the Messengers a tour of its high-tech parcel-sorting operation and flight hub.
“The Humanitarian Award recognizes employees who reach out and help others, exhibiting behavior that goes above and beyond basic community responsibility,” according to FedEx. “Employees are recognized for rushing to the aid of people facing life-threatening situations, personal tragedies, and misfortune.”
Over the years, the company has paid tribute to workers who during their workdays have done something dramatic: stopped a crime, frantically alerted apartment tenants that their building was on fire, or perhaps stopped to help injured motorists at traffic accidents.
In Messenger’s case, he was driving his tractor trailer on Jan. 11 on his regular route from Bradley International Airport to deliver heavyweight freight to various business customers along the I-91 corridor. He’s done that assignment for the past 20 years, and knows most of the 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 in in front of the garage door, one of their guys got a forklift and came to pick it up off the back of the truck and sign for it,” Messenger said Friday. “I was in the truck looking at where I’d be going next when I looked in the mirrors before pulling away. I noticed the guy was behind me, lying in the parking lot.
“I jumped out to see what he was doing and could see he had fallen off the forklift, and he was hurt pretty bad. I kneeled down to where he was trying to get up and I knew he wouldn’t be able to, so I ran inside the tell people to call an ambulance.
“When I knelt down to tell him that help is on the way and to stay calm, I noticed the forklift rolling a little bit. It had stalled and was rolling back toward him, and I could see he wasn’t going to be able to move,” Messenger said.
“So I got up and leaned into the forklift, I was deadweight,” said Messenger, who weighs 220. “I could hold it with my own weight, I’m a bigger guy. And by then there was a commotion, some people came and we chocked the wheels.”
Help arrived a short time later for the badly injured worker. Messenger didn’t want to describe the man’s leg injuries to protect his privacy, but said damage to one leg was extreme.
“I think he was in shock a little,” Messenger said. “I went back a couple months ago and he still wasn’t back to work yet.”
Acura of Berlin’s general manager couldn’t be reached for details about the victim or his prognosis for returning to the job.
It was the most dramatic event in a nearly 29-year career, Messenger said.
“I’ve had a lot of things happen, but fortunately nothing involving injury to a person. I’ve witnessed some things driving, there was a fire on the truck, but nothing like this.”
Messenger was born April 17, 1973, and 22 years later took a part-time job as a package handled for FedEx while preparing for a career as a police officer. But the job 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 bunch 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 destiny that I’m working there.”
Auchy said his friend’s willingness to help has been with him all along.
“Three quarters of the world would’ve just kept driving and left him. Or they’d have taken out their phone, filmed it and posted it for likes,” Auchy said. “Matt’s one of the guys who helps.”