Pizza Delivery Driver Honored For Saving Crash Victim

SOUTH BARRINGTON, IL — A Schaumburg pizza delivery driver is among 18 recent recipients of a Carnegie Medal after he risked his life to save a 61-year-old woman following a collision in South Barrington last summer. Maciej Kosiarski was returning to his pizzeria on July 3, 2018, when he saw an overturned SUV that had gone off a two-lane highway in South Barrington.

Smoke was coming from the vehicle's engine. The only person inside the SUV, 61-year-old Mohanakumari Naidu, was trapped in the driver’s seat, according to a news release from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.

Kosiarski stopped his car and went to the SUV where he climbed onto the driver’s side of the overturned car and opened the rear, driver’s-side door, according to the press release. He entered the vehicle and stood on the inside of the rear, passenger-side door.

Naidu tumbled down from the driver’s seat and entered the rear seat area, while Kosiarski pulled himself out of the car. Kosiarski reached down and grasped Naidu, pulling her up to the driver’s side. He then climbed down the car and grasped Naidu, carrying her to safety, according to the news release.

The Carnegie medal is the highest honor for civilian heroism in the U.S. and Canada. The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others, according to the press release.

A total of 10,135 Carnegie Medals have been awarded since the Pittsburgh-based fund’s inception in 1904. Commission Chair Mark Laskow said each of the awardees or their survivors will also receive a financial grant.

Throughout the more than 115 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $41.3 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance, according to a news release.

More via the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission website