Vincent Santaniello, 58, of Dover, Ohio, died Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018, in his home following a year-long, hard-fought illness.
He was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 2017, for one year earlier, helping to save a 32-year-old woman from a burning pickup truck after a highway accident. With a neighbor they freed the trapped driver before flames grew to engulf the truck. While the driver was hospitalized for minor injuries, she was not burned.
Santaniello was born in 1960 in Brooklyn, N.Y. He graduated from Thomas Edison High School in Jamaica, N.Y., and then spent 30 years in his rig as a truck driver.
Santaniello was an avid Giants fan and was seldom without his Islanders ball cap. He was proud of his Italian heritage and revered The Godfather movies.
He is survived by his wife, Karen, two siblings, two children, and seven grandchildren.