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Goodyear National Highway Hero Unveiled

10 February 1998

Goodyear National Highway Hero Unveiled

    AKRON, Ohio, Feb. 10 -- The nation's 15th annual Goodyear
National Highway Hero is a truck driver from Lithonia, Ga., who saved a man's
life by pulling him from a burning vehicle moments before it exploded.  Thomas
Lawson, a 14-year veteran driver for ABF Freight Systems, Inc. in Fort Smith,
Ark., accepted the designation, $20,000 U.S. Savings Bond and diamond ring
Tuesday night on The Nashville Network's PrimeTime Country program.
    Earlier in the day, Lawson and the three other finalists were introduced
to a record crowd of more than 3,500 at Goodyear's National Sales Conference.
    On Sept. 13, 1997, Lawson was making an early morning run on I-20 from
Jackson, Miss., to Atlanta, when he spotted an overturned, smoldering car
lying in the trees off the side of the highway near Chunky, Miss.
    Bystanders told Lawson there were no signs of life in the car and to stay
away because the vehicle was about to explode.  "I started stopping traffic to
get a cellular phone to call for help," Lawson said.  "I stopped four or five
cars and none had a phone but I finally found one after stopping a Greyhound
bus. Just as I stepped off the bus, the car exploded for the first time."
    Someone then yelled that there were signs of life in the car.  "I ran down
the embankment, climbed on top of the car and the victim was reaching his hand
out and screaming, 'I can't die like this,'" Lawson said.  "The flames were
rolling around him and coming out of the window so I started pulling on his
arm."  With the help of an off-duty paramedic, Lawson was able to pull the
driver -_ 23-year old Lynn Wilson -_ from the vehicle minutes before it
exploded.
    "I certainly credit Tommy Lawson with saving my life," said Wilson, who
fell asleep while driving from college in Oklahoma to visit relatives in
Atlanta.  Wilson has since made a full recovery from injuries he suffered in
the accident.
    "Through his selfless actions and complete disregard for his own safety,
Thomas Lawson has earned the right to be called a hero," said Donn Kramer,
marketing director for Goodyear's commercial tires.  "I know of no better
individual to represent the trucking industry and Goodyear's National Highway
Hero program."
    Founded by Goodyear in 1983, the National Highway Hero program recognizes
professional truck drivers and the oftentimes unnoticed, life-saving rescues
and roadside assistance they provide as their jobs take them across the
country.
    Lawson was nominated for the award earlier this year during the annual
nationwide search for heroic truck drivers for the 1997 National Highway Hero
Program.
    Goodyear is one of the world's leading suppliers of new and retreaded
commercial tires to the replacement market and is a major supplier of medium
radial truck tires as original equipment to truck manufacturers.

SOURCE  Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company