Georgia Truck Driver Earns 2000 Goodyear North America Highway Hero Award

    LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 21 David Zorn's selfless actions in
rescuing a police officer under attack on the side of the highway earned him
the 2000 Goodyear North America Highway Hero Award, Goodyear announced today
at the Mid America Truck Show.
    Zorn of Forest Park, Ga., was traveling through Norcross, Ga., when he
witnessed a police officer being attacked on the side of the road. The suspect
had pinned the officer and was trying to get his gun. However, when Zorn
stopped his 18-wheeler to assist, the suspect fled. Brandishing a large
flashlight, Zorn pursued the suspect, caught him and held him until police
arrived.
    "We should all feel a little safer knowing there are courageous
individuals like these on our roadways," said Rick Howell, Goodyear's
marketing director for commercial systems. "During the 18 years since the
inception of the Highway Hero program, we have heard about hundreds of truck
drivers who placed themselves in harm's way to save someone else, and we think
it is important that they be recognized publicly."
    Zorn, a driver for Consolidated Freightways, was one of four professional
truck drivers who risked their own lives to help others and were selected as
finalists for the 2000 Goodyear North America Highway Hero Award, the trucking
industry's most prestigious award for heroism.
    The finalists and their guests each received all-expense-paid trips to the
Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Fla., as well as the Mid-America Trucking Show
in Louisville, Ky, where they were presented with a $10,000 savings bond and
an engraved plaque. Zorn also received a diamond ring identifying him as the
National Highway Hero.
    The three additional finalists were:

    * Brent Shupe of Charleston, Ill. - On June 30, another vehicle collided
      with Shupe's truck and caught on fire. Shupe rescued two female
      passengers from the burning car and turned his attention to the elderly
      driver. While trying to free him, Shupe was thrown against a guardrail
      when his truck's refrigerator unit exploded. By that time, the driver
      crawled out of the car but seemed unable to move any farther. Shupe
      dragged him away from the car, seconds before it exploded. Shupe
      suffered burns on his arm from the first explosion. Shupe is a driver
      for Midwest Coast Transport.

    * Edward Bowlin of Black Mountain, N.C. - On Nov. 10, 1999, Bowlin had
      parked his rig at a store parking lot when he saw a woman being
      intentionally run down by a motorist. The motorist, the woman's
      estranged husband, then jumped out of the car and began stabbing her in
      the chest. Bowlin tackled the assailant and pinned him to the ground
      until police arrived. The woman, the mother of two young children,
      survived the attack. Bowlin is a driver for Payne Trucking.

    * Carl Tafua of San Jose, Calif. - While passing through Santa Clara,
      Calif., on Aug. 12, Tafua noticed an 8-year-old girl screaming at a man
      who was pursuing her. The girl ran toward Tafua's truck, and, when she
      got in, she told him she had been kidnapped. Tafua called his
      dispatcher, who contacted police, and then he took down the license
      plate number of the fleeing suspect. The suspect was later arrested for
      having kidnapped the girl two days earlier. Tafua is a driver for Viking
      Freight.

    Goodyear established the Highway Hero program in 1983 to recognize
professional truck drivers and the life-saving rescues and roadside assistance
they provide as their jobs take them across North America.
    The finalists were selected from 24 state and provincial winners
throughout the United States and Canada. A panel of judges, consisting of
members of the trucking and tire trade media, selected the 2000 Goodyear North
America Highway Hero.
    Goodyear is the world's largest tire company. Together with its U.S. and
international subsidiaries and joint ventures, Goodyear manufactures and
markets tires for most applications. It also manufactures and sells several
lines of power transmission belts, hose and other rubber products for the
transportation industry and various industrial and consumer markets, as well
as rubber-related chemicals for various applications. Goodyear, through its
Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems, is also the world's largest operator of
commercial truck service and tire retreading centers.