Beloved Pastor Lauded for ‘Giving His Life to Save the Woman He Loved’ in Horrific Accident

It’s every man’s worst nightmare and most heroic fantasy: Laying down your life to save the ones you love.

For Pastor David Lalgee, 64, it was neither nightmare nor fantasy, but a tragic reality.

Tributes are pouring in after Lalgee reportedly died after a horrific car crash on March 20, according to the Manchester Evening News.

The accident took place near the town of Swinton in Manchester, on the M60 roadway — and could have been even worse had it not been for Lalgee’s quick thinking.

According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, Lalgee and his wife were driving on the M60 when a truck apparently lost control and jumped the median.

The Mail reported: “With the out-of-control truck bearing down on him, the former church minister and grandfather-of-nine braked and swerved his Volkswagen iD5 so he took the brunt of the high-speed crash – sparing Jo, his wife of six years, from certain death.”

Certain death or no, Lalgee’s wife certainly believes he saved her life.

“David saved my life,” she told the Mail. “It was a miracle that I walked away from the accident. He did everything he could to stop the lorry [British term for large trucks] from hitting me.”

Lalgee’s wife further elaborated on how calm and collected her husband was moments before the fatal accident.

“When we saw the lorry break through the central reservation, David knew exactly what was going to happen,” she recounted. “He said to me, ‘OK, here we go.’

“He maneuvered the car so that he took the full impact of the lorry. After the impact, we rolled several times.”

Lalgee’s wife further explained that she thought they were OK after the dust had sort of settled before noticing the blood coming from her husband’s head.

She claimed she was able to walk away with nothing more than a few bruised ribs, thanks to Lalgee’s sacrifice.

“The doctors did everything they could for David, but they couldn’t save him,” she noted.

An outpouring of love immediately came in for Lalgee, including some prayerful words from Rev. Franklin Graham and touching words from his daughter-in-law, Connie.

Connie, the Evening News reported, penned a touching social media post, reading, “As many of you may have already seen in the news and across social media, our beloved David tragically lost his life following a road traffic collision on the M60 last Thursday night. In his final moments, David did what he always did, he put others before himself,” she penned on social media.

Graham, meanwhile, took to both and social media platform X to lament the loss.

“This pastor was a hero,” Graham noted in a post, adding that he’s worked with Lalgee in the past, and currently works with his son-in-law.

But perhaps the poignant part of Graham’s post came when he invoked the Word of God, citing the powerful words found within John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Man’s selfless final act saved his wife from death as a runaway lorry ploughed towards them on a Manchester highway.

With the truck bearing down on him, David Lalgee, 64, braked and swerved his car so he took the brunt of the crash, saving his wife’s life.

Heartbreaking. 🥺🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/bUSUsE5QVP

— ♀ Emma ☨ (@AustraHungarian) March 25, 2025

And Mrs. Lalgee appears very cognizant of that “greater love,” saying, “He sacrificed his life to save mine and I’ll be forever grateful to him for that.”

A GoFundMe has been launched to help the Lalgee family cover funeral costs, and can be found at this link.

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