"Highway Angel" Local honored for helping woman at rest area By DARLENE WYATT Staff What would you do if you were alone at a Pennsylvania rest area, it's late at night and you hear someone screaming for help in the nearby bushes?

If you are Jimmy Morrison, you don't think twice about it and you head straight for the bushes to see what you can do to help someone you think is in trouble. What Morrison discovered after he reached the place where the screams were coming from was three men attacking a woman in a remote part of the rest area. Two of the attackers were armed, according to Morrison.

Morrison, a Vietnam War veteran who works as a truck driver, fought off the attackers and restrained them until the police arrived. Morrison said one of the men threatened him with a knife and one had a pistol.

"I was going into the restrooms and heard her screaming in the bushes," Morrison said. "I confronted one and he turned to me with a gun, the second one came at me with a knife and the third one ran off."

The woman was unconscious by the time the cops arrived and her husband, who appeared after the attack occurred, spoke very little English. After the cops arrived, they held Morrison until they figured out what had conspired. One of the attackers was already wanted for armed robbery, said Morrison. Two of the three perpetrators landed a jail sentence for the attack.

"I'm glad I was there," said Morrison, who was recognized as a Highway Angel by the Truckload Carriers Association.

Morrison received a certificate of appreciation and a letter from the organization. In a letter from Truckload Carriers Association to Morrison it states that the company appreciates the "human act of kindness you showed to your fellow travelers."

On the certificate that Morrison has been termed, "a highway angel" for his act of courtesy and courage in rescuing the woman.

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