The Postmaster General Hero Award is given to U.S. Postal Service employees who go above and beyond the call of duty to protect human life and property.

It is an award that was well earned by Brenda Lumley, a postal worker at the Parker Post Office who began her career in 1993 in Mars and spent 12 years at Cranberry Township’s post office.

On June 20, Lumley discovered a vehicle that had crashed on her rural route along Daubenspeck Road in Parker Township.

Arthur Russo had been driving his SUV in the area when a medical emergency caused him to crash into a tree at 50 mph. He managed to stumble out of his vehicle and collapsed on the road.

Russo flagged down Lumley, who called 911 and helped to get Russo into her vehicle and off the road. She took him to his house and waited with him until an ambulance and state police arrived.

“That lady is my angel,” Russo said.

On Friday, Lumley was honored at the Parker Post Office with the hero award — and it was much deserved.

Russo was hospitalized for several weeks for his injuries, which included two fractured vertebrae and five fractured ribs. He is recovering at home from a spinal fusion and surgery. He had a total of 62 staples, two rods and eight screws inserted into his body.

If Lumley hadn’t gotten involved and lent Russo a hand, it’s possible his outcome could have been worse.

In today’s litigious society, people often get so wrapped up in how one can be held responsible for getting involved in someone else’s plight — or how one’s involvement could come back to bite them — that they live by the mantra “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Thankfully, there are people like Brenda Lumley, whose priority in the scenario was assisting a person in need. She decided that stepping in when her help was needed outweighed other considerations.

For her efforts, Lumley will receive a commendation letter from Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan, and she will be featured on a heroes’ wall at USPS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“Any one of us would have done the same thing in the situation I was put in,” Lumley said of the ordeal.

We hope that anyone who’d think twice about getting involved in such a situation will be inspired by Lumley’s heroic act.