Florida-based Stevens Transport driver Royford Burris addresses the Truckload Carriers Association attendees after being named Highway Angel of the Year for the 2020 calendar year.
The Truckload Carriers Association had its work cut out for it in naming the Highway Angel of the Year at its annual Truckload 2021 conference and exhibition, ongoing through today in Las Vegas. For calendar year 2020, the TCA named 75 Highway Angels. That number of drivers and owner-operators recognized for on-highway heroism was more than any single year since the program's 1990s inception, said current TCA Chairman Jim Ward in the preamble to announcing this year's winner.
The overall winner is Florida-based Royford Burris, pictured above during his speech to the assembled. Burris gave a melancholy reflection on the difficulties faced in the aftermath of a fiery wreck for which the Stevens Transport hauler was the first on the scene in August of 2020. Multiple fatalities resulted, and Burris's quick action to release a trapped child passenger was ultimately instrumental in her return to her father alive.
Royford Burris making his way to the stage for his acceptance remarks.
Burris also took the moment to urge the assembled to learn from his and his company's example to look past what some view as a barrier to empathy and appreciation – the basic color of one's skin.
"I am a black man," he said. "And people always say, with the color thing, that 'black don’t like white and white don’t like black,' but I say that is a lie."
As Burris experienced trauma in his own life following the accident ("flashbacks," he said, disturbing his sleep, and he "couldn't eat right for three months"), his employer helped him "get counseling to overcome it."
