Michele Nouvion says she wouldn’t be alive if not for a Good Samaritan who came to her aid 30 years ago, when she was involved in a serious crash.

So when she was presented with a chance to potentially make the same sort of difference for somebody else, she knew what she had to do.

Tuesday afternoon, Nouvion was standing in a parking lot along Laird Road in Guelph, chatting with a friend.

“All of a sudden we heard a loud pop, and an explosion,” she says.

Although she didn’t realize it in the moment, she had just witnessed a crash between a passenger van and a dump truck.

The dump truck swerved, and ended up hopping a curb. It hit four vehicles in the parking lot, causing each of them to catch fire.

One of those vehicles was Nouvion’s, but that wasn’t what was on her mind. After running inside her workplace and ensuring somebody called 911, she ran to the dump truck and pulled the driver to safety.

“I probably shouldn’t have done something like that – however, that’s a human being,” she says.

The driver of the dump truck was taken to hospital, and had been released from care by Wednesday.

The driver of the van – a 46-year-old Guelph man who has not been identified – was killed. Nouvion had run over to help him, too, but realized it was already too late.

Sgt. Doug Pflug of Guelph Police calls Nouvion’s actions “incredibly brave.” He says police are hoping to find a way to honour her.

“It’s pretty outstanding, what she had done,” he says.

Police continue to investigate the crash. No charges have been laid.

With reporting by Abigail Bimman