Zach Miller just needed 10 more followers on his Instagram account. If only he could break the 3,000-follower threshold, the snowboarder who competed in the 2022 Paralympics in Beijing hoped, he could attract more sponsors and give some momentum to his training for the 2026 Paralympics in Italy.
The next day, his Instagram account blew up. All because — thanks to Miller — a truck driven up Parleys Canyon did not.
“I didn’t know who Zach was, especially him wearing a helmet. He had his helmet on the whole time, so I never knew what he looked like,” said Hector Diaz, 34, of Payson, who had been driving the truck. “All I know [is] that day he was my guardian angel.”
Diaz, who owns HDZ Construction, was driving his white Ford F-150 up Interstate 80 toward Park City around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 9 to drop off some materials at a job site. He just started to notice some white smoke curling around the truck when something else caught his eye: a person on a motorcycle frantically waving at him and pointing at his truck.
The person was Miller. He was on his way from Salt Lake City, which he has called home since moving from Colorado last winter, to a training session at the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association’s renowned Center of Excellence in Park City. Miller said he likes to check out other cars on the road during his commutes, especially when he’s riding his 2016 Yamaha FZ-09. The smoke coming from Diaz’s truck couldn’t be missed anyway. It reminded Miller of the many times he’d witnessed engine failures when watching Formula 1, NASCAR and MotoGP races on TV.
Then he saw the fire.
Courtesy of US Ski & Snowboard Association Para snowboarder Zach Miller competes in a banked slalom competition. Miller, 25, of Salt Lake City flagged down the driver of a truck that caught on fire on Interstate 80 in Parley's Canyon. The video of his rescue has gone viral on Instagram.
“As I got closer, I saw the flames coming out of his engine,” Miller said, “And I was like, ‘This is an emergency!’”
Cutting across several lanes, Miller flagged down Diaz, who immediately put on his hazard lights and moved to the shoulder.
“Your truck’s on fire! You’re on fire!” Miller shouted at him.
Diaz wasn’t carrying a fire extinguisher, which Miller said would have been the safest way to put out the flames. He did, however, have a Costco case of water bottles in the truck bed. The men couldn’t reach the flame, which was tucked behind the front right wheel, without opening the hood. So they opened it — which Miller admits was not very prudent since it could have fanned the flames and made the fire even bigger — and doused the fire. Another concern was that it was an oil fire, in which case the water may have helped the fire spread.
“Here’s the thing, man,” Miller said. “We had 10 seconds to figure out this whole thing.”
Miller credits snowboard competitions and a lifetime of playing video games for his quick thinking and level head during the encounter. Miller has cerebral palsy and, in addition to qualifying for the 2022 Paralympics, collected medals in banked slalom team (gold), dual banked slalom (silver) and snowboardcross (bronze) at the 2023 World Championships in Spain. That earned him the 2023 “Best Athlete with a Disability” ESPY and the “Adaptive Male Athlete of the Year” at Utah’s State of Sports Awards.
Diaz, meanwhile, credits Miller for saving his life. It’s a life he says he thanks God for every day, a result of spending nine years locked in prison. He hasn’t had a bad day, he said, since his release four years ago.
“I’m glad Zach was able to see [the fire]. It could have gone way worse,” Diaz said. “The further I would have kept going up the canyon, maybe the truck would have blown up while I was driving it. Maybe I could have died.”
Soon after they extinguished the fire, Miller headed back up the highway, wondering if anyone would believe him when he told them why he was late. Then he realized he’d caught it all on video.
Miller hadn’t used his GoPro in quite a while, using it more as a decoration than safety device on his motorcycle helmet since the last time its storage reached capacity. A few weeks ago, though, he deleted the old footage and started turning it on again after he realized he’d drawn an influx of Instagram followers from some other motorcycle footage he’d posted.
Those posts gained him maybe 200 followers. The one of him helping Diaz? It earned him more than 15,000 followers. As of Monday, it had received 26.7 million views and more than 1.6 million likes.
Two new accounts stand out in that sea of adoration, though. One is Diaz’s. The other belongs to his wife, Nayelie, who brought Miller to tears when she posted a thank you to him for helping Diaz come home to her and their 18-month-old son.
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