Four Drivers Named Goodyear Highway Hero Finalists

(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has named four truckers as finalists in its annual North America Highway Hero Award. The winner will be announced at next month’s Mid-American Truck Show in Louisville, Kentucky, Mar. 22-24. “We are indebted to truck drivers across the United States and Canada who keep America rolling,” said Steve McClellan, Goodyear’s vice president for commercial tire systems. “In this, the Goodyear Highway Hero Award’s 23rd year, it was especially difficult to select just four truck drivers who placed themselves in harm’s way to save someone else.”

For 2005, the finalists are:

• Michael Knott, of Casselberry, Fla., a driver for FedEx Ground, who saved an injured woman and her baby daughter from oncoming traffic as they lay on the Florida Turnpike in Osceola County on Oct. 13, 2005.

• Douglas Crawford, of Ashford, Ala., a driver for Saia Motor Freight, based in Dothan, Ala., who saved the life of another truck driverafter seeing two trucks collide on I-85 near Newnan, Georgia., on Aug. 25, 2005.

• Danny Wallen, of Conover, Ohio, a driver for ABF Freight Systems Inc., based in Fort Smith, Ark., who was traveling south on I-65 in Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 9, 2005, when he saw a traffic accident in which a stalled car was struck by a sport-utility vehicle. He and two others saved a Thompson’s Station, Tenn., couple from the fiery crash.

• Sen. Robert A. Starr, of North Troy, Vt., driver/owner of Starr’s Transportation, based in North Troy, and a Vermont State Senator who saved a woman from a wreck on Highway 40 near Trois Rivieres in Quebec, Canada, on Sept. 14, 2005, caused when the road collapsed, opening a massive crevice that crossed the four-lane road.