RALEIGH — Four workers from the Piedmont Correctional Institute in Salisbury were awarded with the Governor’s Award for Excellence for saving a driver trapped in an overturned tractor-trailer earlier this year.

The four correctional workers who received the award during a ceremony on Tuesday were Billy Joe Gilley of Salisbury, Susan Glover of Salisbury, Jennifer Jones of New London and Brian Lackey of Salisbury. The four were awarded under the safety and heroism category.

The four relayed their memories of the event in a video released by the Office of State Human Resources after the ceremony. They were on their way back from a strategic planning meeting in Winston-Salem when they noticed the overturning of the tractor-trailer on the highway.

“My thought process is, ‘we gotta help.’ It had just happened, nobody else was really on the scene yet. A few cars had pulled over, but we were the first ones in action,” said Lackey in the video.

Glover said that she noticed the truck overturning and pointed it out to the other passengers in the car, at which point they jumped out and assessed the scene.

Gilley hoisted Lackey on top of the sideways cab, where Lackey worked to open the stuck passenger door. Lackey said he crawled into the cab to help the driver, who was disoriented from the crash.

“He was really confused. He was aware that he was in a wreck but he didn’t really know what was going on,” said Lackey.

The four were able to get the driver safely out of the truck and lowered to the ground.

“That’s the way we’re trained. We’re trained to help people so that’s what we do, help people,” said Gilley.

The correctional workers also noticed a liquid leaking from the engine, so they took the fire extinguisher from their vehicle and sprayed the area to prevent fires.