KANNAPOLIS — A truck driver from Kannapolis was named Thursday one of 24 recipients in the U.S. and Canada of an award for outstanding heroism by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.

James Mills, 48, saw Virgie M. Peoples stuck and trying to get out of her car on a railroad track in Concord as a passenger train approached at 65 mph on Oct. 11, 1999.

Mills ran to the car and pulled 71-year-old Peoples out, clearing the track just seconds before the train struck, demolishing the car and pushing it 1,000 feet down the track.

People sustained only a bruise on her arm, and both appeared on the Oprah television show to tell the story.

Mills is one of two North Carolinians to receive the bronze Carnegie Medal and a $3,500 cash award.

The commission honored Grant Sullivan of Boone, who died saving his 8-year-old niece as she struggled in rough water on Lake Michigan on Aug. 6, 1999.

Pittsburgh steelmaker and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie established a fund in 1904 to honor ordinary people who perform extraordinary acts of heroism.

The commission honors people five times a year who risk their own lives while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. Six of the most recent honorees died during their acts of heroism.

The commission has honored 85 people in the U.S. and Canada this year, with another group of heroes to be honored in December. It has given 8,426 awards since 1904.