Waste Connections driver to receive award for saving 7-year-old’s life

Florida’s Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office will be awarding a Waste Connections refuse truck driver with its Citizen Lifesaving Award after the driver helped save the life of a 7-year-old child earlier this year, according to 10 Tampa Bay.

Waldo Fidele was conducting his normal residential collection duties in Tampa Bay on Feb. 9 when he witnessed via the vehicle’s in-cab surveillance camera a boy falling into his truck along with the garbage that was getting tipped.

Authorities say the boy was playing with his grandparents at the time and hid in the curbside garbage can as the driver came to collect the home’s waste. When the automated collection arm dumped the can and Fidele spotted the boy, he immediately hit the emergency stop button on the truck’s compactor to prevent the child from being crushed.

Authorities were called to the scene by the boy’s grandmother to help free him from the truck. The child was unharmed.

"Had it not been for Waldo Fidele's quick thinking, a young child could have lost his life that day," Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. "It's his heroic actions that prevented a family from experiencing tragedy and allowed a 7-year-old boy to play another day.

"We are thankful for Mr. Fidele, and this award is a small example of that gratitude."