AKRON, Ohio, April 1, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Like the
professional truck drivers who are honored with the Goodyear North
America Highway Hero Award, the nation's largest tire company also
has logged a lot of miles on its way to marking 25 years of program
sponsorship. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050204/GTLOGO ) The Highway
Hero program is considered by many in the trucking industry to
represent the highest honor a truck driver can achieve. The award
is presented annually to a professional trucker who exhibits
selflessness and courage in helping others. Back in 1983, Goodyear
began its sponsorship of the Highway Hero program with Ronnie
Stapleton, of Beckley, W.Va., taking home the first prize. The
truck tire company assumed responsibility for the program from
"Heavy Duty Trucking" magazine, which started the award a couple
years prior. Stapleton was recognized for using his bare hands to
tear off the back door of a burning car, and then breaking the back
seat in two as he extricated two unconscious occupants. At that
time, Stapleton - who also was a preacher - was hauling explosives
in his DuPont truck. Two years later, Highway Hero winner Curt
Jones, from Oneonta, Ala., was cited as the first trucker to
emblazon his rig with huge posters of missing children, to point
out the plight of runaways. He also organized 10 truck convoys to
call attention to the need for more awareness of missing children,
and began a program of visiting schools to urge youngsters to seek
counseling instead of running from problems. In 1992, a
husband-and-wife Stidham Trucking Inc. driving team worked together
to save a life, convict a felon and capture the Highway Hero Award.
Connie Cooper and Patrick Fee, of Cottonwood, Calif., saved a woman
from certain death when they pulled her from the center lane of an
interstate highway where she had been thrown after being attacked.
The duo dodged traffic to pull the woman to safety. Officials
speculated her attacker threw her into the roadway so that she
would be run over. Later, courtroom testimony, based on the
victim's conversations with Cooper, led to the arrest, conviction
and imprisonment of the suspect. The work by this team of married
truck drivers led to Cooper's claim as the first female recipient
of the Goodyear Highway Hero Award. The 1993 Highway Hero, Boyd
Applegate of San Diego, gave judges multiple reasons to choose him
as a "hero." In just over two months, the Green Valley
Transportation driver participated in life-saving efforts at two
separate accident scenes. First, Applegate climbed into a steep,
rocky ravine in the middle of the night and rescued a driver,
thrown clear of his vehicle and hidden among rocks in the ravine.
Just weeks later, Applegate cleared the breathing passage of a Los
Angeles patrolman whose face had been crushed in a car accident.
Goodyear began sponsoring the Highway Hero program in 1983 in order
to promote a positive image of truck drivers. "It's all about the
drivers," said Donn Kramer, director of Goodyear commercial tire
marketing. "It's all about what they do in their jobs and their
actions that go above and beyond the call of duty. It has
everything to do with who they are as people." Present and past
winners include: 2007: Richard Filiczkowski, of Bountiful, Utah
(C.R. England), saved an 8-year-old girl from a car sinking in a
pond near the interstate. 2006: Edward Regener, of Parris, Calif.
(FedEx Freight), escaped a fire in his truck and jumped into
another to save two men trapped in their burning car. 2005: Douglas
Crawford, of Ashford, Ala. (Saia Freight Lines Inc.), saved a
fellow truck driver whose cab was engulfed in flames after a
collision with another 18-wheeler. 2004: Rick Dent, of Diana, Texas
(Groendyke Transport Inc.), saved a man and his two children after
their car swerved to miss a deer in the road and landed in a
water-filled ditch. 2003: Derrick Harris, of Hopewell, Va.
(Schneider National Carriers), saved a person who was deliberately
set on fire, and then he helped police locate and arrest the person
charged with the heinous crime. 2002: Charles Ingram, of Jackson,
Ga. (FedEx Ground), used a hammer to break out windows of a burning
vehicle and pulled two occupants to safety. 2001: Larry "Scott"
Travis, of Albuquerque, N.M. (Covenant Transportation), suffered
burns as he pulled a woman from her burning SUV, which exploded
seconds later. 2000: David Zorn, of Forest Park, Ga. (Consolidated
Freightways), saw a police officer attacked alongside the highway,
and carrying a large flashlight, pursued the suspect and caught and
held him until police arrived. 1999: Terry Harvey, of Salt Lick,
Ky. (American Freightways Inc.), and Floyd Anthony Miller, of
Irvine, Ky. (Kentucky Petroleum Supply), teamed to save two
motorists from a fiery two-car accident. 1998: Wayne Carpenter, of
Paragould, Ky. (M.S. Carriers Inc.), saw a fiery collision between
a car and truck, and he pulled the unconscious and critically
injured driver of the car from the flames. 1997: Thomas Lawson, of
Lithonia, Ga. (ABF Freight Systems), pulled a man from a burning
vehicle moments before it exploded. 1996: Jeff May, of Guilford,
Conn., and Clint LeFabvre, of Moultonborough, N.H. (United Parcel
Service), pulled a critically injured man from his car moments
before the vehicle's gas tank exploded. They also helped a second
victim climb to the ground after his car went airborne and landed
in a tree, 20 feet in the air. 1995: Rob Lomanno, of Malden, Mass.,
and Chris Kendall, of Nashua, N.H. (Clark & Reid Executive
Movers), pried the doors off a burning sport-utility vehicle to
pull a critically injured woman and her three children to safety.
1994: Todd Forbush Sr., of Elyria, Ohio (United Parcel Service),
saved a woman whose burning pickup truck struck Forbush's truck at
least three times. 1993: Boyd Applegate, of San Diego (Green Valley
Transportation), climbed into a steep, rocky ravine in the middle
of the night and rescued a driver, who was thrown from his vehicle
and landed among some rocks on the opposite side of the ravine.
Weeks later, Applegate cleared the breathing passage of a Los
Angeles patrolman whose face was crushed in a car accident that
also injured his wife. 1992: Connie Cooper and Patrick Fee, of
Cottonwood, Calif. (Stidham Trucking Inc.), saved a woman from
certain death when they pulled her from the center of the
interstate under an overpass where she had been thrown after being
attacked. Courtroom testimony based on the woman's conversations
with Cooper led to the arrest and conviction of a suspect. 1991:
Phillip Houck, of Tupelo, Okla. (PAM Transport Inc.), saw a station
wagon strike the rear of a parked flatbed trailer and burst into
flame. The driver was decapitated, but Houck used a fire
extinguisher, a pipe and his hands to smash the windows and to pull
three children to safety. 1990: Kenneth Bass, of Milton, Fla.
(Triple B Services), saved a man from drowning by making repeated
attempts to pull him from a submerged car. 1989: Rickey Fadden, of
Lexington, Ohio (Artesian Transportation), rescued two people by
climbing into a smoking, overturned car as it teetered on the edge
of a ravine. 1988: Tommy Smith, of Paragould, Ark. (M.S. Carriers),
twice entered a burning car to rescue a couple pinned in the
wreckage. 1987: Robert Williams, of Fort Smith, Ark., climbed into
a burning vehicle and cut the driver's seat belt before the car
exploded. 1986: James Warren, of Hixson, Tenn., rescued a
13-year-old mentally handicapped child from a burning vehicle,
dislodging a jammed door to reach him. 1985: Curt Jones, of
Montezuma, Iowa, emblazoned his tractor-trailer rig with posters of
missing children to highlight the plight of runaways. He also
organized truck convoys to call attention to the problem and
started a program that visited schools, urging students to seek
counseling instead of running from problems. 1984: Dennis Myers, of
Leipsic, Ohio (Ranger Nationwide), rescued a crash victim seconds
before the vehicle exploded. 1983: Ronnie Stapleton, Beckley, W.Va.
(DuPont), used his bare hands to remove the back door of a burning
car and to break the back seat in half so that he saved two
unconscious victims. For more on Goodyear's Highway Hero program
and to nominate a truck driver for the 26th anniversary of the
award, go to http://www.goodyear.com/truck/news/hero.html .
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050204/GTLOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: The Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Company CONTACT: Dave Wilkins of The Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Company, +1-330-796-3758, Web site: http://www.goodyear.com/
http://www.goodyear.com/truck/news/hero.html
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