After giving the 911 operator the man’s licence plate number, Pennington learned the man’s first name and began communicating with him.

“I grabbed his arm and I said, ‘You’re not going to do this tonight. We’re going to work this out.’”

The man’s complexion was pure white, said Pennington.

“His eyes were glazed over like he wasn’t there. When I started saying his name and I starting holding him, I started to direct him back to the other side of the barricade.”

Pennington spent the next 13 minutes at the man’s side. But it felt like hours. The 911 operator helped coach him through every moment.

“The more I said his name, the more it was bringing him back,” said Pennington. “He needed a friend. He needed someone there.”

“My name is Dale,” Pennington recalled saying. “I can be your friend. We can work this out.”

Deep inside, Pennington was panicking. But he wasn’t letting it show. He expected to hear sirens. But aside from the driving rain, traffic and the shaking bridge, there was silence.

“I kept asking him, ‘What happened? Is there someone I could call, are you thirsty?’”

After what felt like an eternity, the first OPP officer arrived in an unmarked black Chevy Tahoe. An officer got out slowly, and walked the man to a police vehicle.

“The OPP did an incredible job,” said Pennington. “And the dispatcher, she was calm. She told me what to say, so I could relay it to him.”

Finally able to step away from the situation, Pennington broke down.

“All of the emotion from this and what just happened, I was trying to process it all,” he said.

Pennington was told the man was taken to Joseph Brant Hospital for a 72-hour hold and that he is now getting the help he needs.

Pennington also received some counselling following that night. He said three or officers shook his hand to congratulate him that evening. As of Aug. 19, it wasn’t clear whether Pennington might receive a commendation.

Reached by phone, OPP media relations officer Sgt. Kerry Schmidt confirmed the police response but couldn’t comment on whether Pennington is being reviewed for a commendation.

Despite being credited with potentially saving a life, Pennington felt conflicted. Did he really make a difference?

His doubts were heightened on Monday, Aug. 15, when the news of another man in distress on the Skyway hit the airwaves during the afternoon rush hour.

“I thought that was my guy,” said Pennington.

After inquiring with the OPP, Pennington was assured it wasn’t the same man.

As a man who believes in the phrase, random acts of kindness, Pennington feels he was meant to be where he was in the early morning hours of Aug. 10.

“For some reason, I guess I was meant to be there,” he said. “I didn’t have time to be scared. I just had to react.”

Along with holding doors and helping the elderly, Pennington pays it forward once a week by buying the next customer’s coffee in the drive-through lane.

Pennington believes the world be a lot better place if people were simply nicer to each other.

“We need to be better to one another. We’re only here for a short time. Why not make it a good time?” he said.

A former St. Catharines resident, Pennington and another man once pulled a badly burned neighbour from a house fire. He called the victim’s mother, hoping to ensure her that her son would be OK.

Unfortunately, Pennington found out the next day the man had died.

To Pennington, what he did this month on the Skyway doesn’t make him a hero. Instead, he gives praise to the police officers, firefighters and other first responders who risk their safety on a daily basis.

“To go inside a burning building and to save someone, those guys are heroes,” said Pennington.

Darryl Cooper, CEO of Cooper Equipment Rentals, named Pennington the Cooper Difference Maker of the Week, a company honour awarded to employees who go beyond the call of duty. Normally, said Cooper, an employee volunteering to pick up equipment at 3 a.m. would be reason enough to win.

“When I heard this added element of the story, I thought it was just unbelievable. I’m proud to know that we have employees like this,” he said.