Local group cites 'hero' who helped after tanker overturned

CHAMPAIGN – The Piankeshaw Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution has given a heroism award to a Thomasboro man who helped pull a truck driver from the cab of his overturned rig as it spilled gasoline.

George McCoppin, 56, a part-time Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District driver, was one of a few witnesses to the Dec. 26 accident in which David Hudson, 47, of Decatur, was gravely injured when he tried to avoid hitting a mini-van driven by a Mahomet teen who had pulled in front of him.

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