Six Truckers Named As Finalists For Goodyear's Hero Award
16 February 2000
Six Truckers Named As Finalists For Goodyear's North America Highway Hero Award
AKRON, Ohio, Feb. 16 -- Six professional truck drivers who
risked their own lives to help others have been selected as finalists for the
1999 Goodyear North America Highway Hero Award, the trucking industry's most
prestigious award for heroism.
On March 23, the drivers will be introduced to the trucking industry at
the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., and one of the drivers will
be named the 1999 Goodyear North America Highway Hero.
The finalists are:
* Terry Harvey of Salt Lick, Ky., and Floyd Anthony Miller of Irvine, Ky.
- On June 22, Harvey and Miller, driving separate rigs, came across a fiery
accident involving a Jeep and a sedan on Kentucky's Mountain Parkway. The
quick-thinking men broke out the back window of the upside-down Jeep and used
a knife to free the driver from his seatbelt. Then they used an air mattress
in the back of the Jeep to drag the 275-pound driver to safety.
The driver of the sedan, however, was trapped and the fire from the Jeep
spread dangerously close. As bystanders stood at a distance, fearing an
explosion, Harvey and Miller used a nylon strap connected to Harvey's truck to
pull the sedan to safety. Soon afterward, the blaze reached the Jeep's gas
tank, creating a fireball that engulfed the area where the sedan had been
located. Both drivers survived the accident.
Harvey drives for American Freightways Inc. of Lexington, and Miller
drives for Kentucky Petroleum Supply of Winchester.
* Morris Holley of Baltimore, Md., and Ronald McKee of Middletown, N.J. -
In the early morning hours of April 9 on Interstate 95 in Virginia, Holley
witnessed a vehicle slam into the rear of another vehicle, overturn and catch
fire. He tried to extinguish the blaze himself, and, when his efforts failed,
he radioed for other truck drivers to help. However, all of their
extinguishers were unable to overcome the gasoline-fed inferno, and some
bystanders, fearing an explosion, began to back away from the scene.
That's when McKee picked up a spent extinguisher, broke out the car's rear
window and dragged the woman to safety. Literally within seconds of McKee's
dramatic rescue, the car exploded. Holley, McKee and other drivers tended to
the crash victim until rescue crews arrived, and the woman did survive her
injuries.
Holley drives for Swift Transportation Inc. of Richmond, Va., and McKee
drives for Arctic Express of Hilliard, Ohio.
* Jeffrey Wiles of Montpelier, Ohio. - On September 29, Wiles noticed a
van weaving erratically through morning traffic on Route 15 near Bryan, Ohio.
He contacted police as he followed the van for 11/2 miles. At that point, the
van veered off the road, struck a retaining wall and came to a stop on top of
a gas main. The crash broke off the top of the gas main, and the vehicle was
quickly engulfed in flames. (Unknown to Wiles at the time, a 20-pound propone
tank and full 5-gallon gas container were in the back of the van.) Wiles and
two other motorists tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the flames. Then they
broke out the rear window of the van and pulled the driver to safety.
Only after the driver was freed did Wiles realize that he was a friend who
had worked closely with Wiles on the local EMS team. The driver, a diabetic,
had gone into insulin shock while driving. He survived the accident.
Wiles drives for Bryan Truck Line in Montpelier.
* John McDonald of Memphis, Tenn. - While picking up a load in Garwood,
N.J., on Feb. 7 of last year, McDonald heard a commotion inside the building.
A panicked worker approached McDonald and told him that a co-worker needed
help inside. Barrels weighing several hundred pounds had fallen, and one of
them landed on the worker's leg, severing it. Despite the fact that other
barrels were stacked precariously nearby, McDonald applied a tourniquet to the
victim's leg and consoled him until rescue crews arrived. Doctors were unable
to reattach the man's leg, but he did survive.
McDonald drives for M.S. Carriers Inc. in Memphis.
"We should all feel a little safer knowing there are courageous
individuals like these six men on our roadways," said Mike Thomann, Goodyear's
marketing director for commercial tires. "During the 17 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."
The six finalists were selected out of 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, will select the 1999 Goodyear
North America Highway Hero, who will receive a $20,000 savings bond. (In case
of a tie, the award will be split.)
The other finalists will receive $5,000 savings bonds. All of the
finalists receive a free trip to the Mid-America Trucking Show and, following
the awards ceremony, a trip to Nashville.