Goodyear will announce its annual Highway Hero Award winner on March 21 during the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky. The award honors drivers who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. The driver who is named the Highway Hero will receive a ring, a plaque and a $5,000 cash award. This year’s list of finalists are:
Christopher Burgess, an independent driver from Ravenna, Ohio. After picking up 15 tons of sand, Burgess was driving down a steep hill in Akron, Ohio, when his brakes failed. Burgess waved his arms and honked the vehicle’s horn while it sped down the hill toward a busy intersection at an estimated 50 miles per hour. He maneuvered the truck through the intersection. He swerved between two buildings and steered toward the rear of the property, behind which was a river bank. The truck hit a tree and dropped into the river below. Burgess died in the accident and would be honored posthumously if named the Highway Hero.
Chad Dickey of Wadena, Minn., driver for Tony’s Transfer. Dickey was driving near Chattanooga, Tenn., late at night when he came across vehicle debris, including a fuel tank, scattered across the highway. Dickey stopped his truck, grabbed his flashlight and went to investigate. He spotted some tracks on the pavement and followed them to a nearby ditch, where he found the remains of an 18-wheeler, including the exposed driver’s seat to which Lewis Boyd, another trucker, was strapped. Boyd had suffered a massive gash in his leg and was passing in and out of consciousness due to rapid blood loss. Dickey applied a tourniquet to Boyd’s leg for 30 minutes while keeping him alert until rescue personnel arrived. They airlifted Boyd to a local hospital, where he spent more than a month recovering from his injuries.
Jason Harte of Rogers, Ark., driver for Sammons Trucking. Harte was driving down an interstate in Wyoming when he saw a speeding pickup truck push a minivan off the road and slam into another car, pushing it to the highway median. Bystanders helped the car driver while Harte approached the van, where a man and woman holding a six-month-old baby were frantically trying to get out of the vehicle. Harte noticed three other children were trapped in the van. He dialed 911, helped the man, woman and baby out of the van, and then rescued the most accessible of the three other children. Working with other bystanders, Harte, a former paramedic, opened the van’s back hatch and began performing first aid on the nearest child, then pulled her out through the door. He pulled apart seats and cut seatbelts to rescue the third child. Calling upon his EMT experience, Harte helped rescue crews tend to the victims’ injuries – which ranged from broken legs to a fractured skull and internal bleeding.
David Williams of Angier, N.C., driver for Schneider National. Williams was driving down an interstate in Wilmington, N.C., when he spotted a broken down car ahead of him. It was raining heavily, and the car had spun around and was facing oncoming traffic. Williams stopped his truck and raced to the car. He placed safety cones around the car and began directing traffic away from it. Suddenly, Williams spotted a pickup truck approaching at high speed. He jumped out of the way to avoid being crushed by the pickup, which slammed into the back of his rig and burst into flames. The pickup’s driver escaped while Williams pulled the tpickup’s passenger out of the burning vehicle. He then helped extinguish the flames that had engulfed the pickup.
