Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. selected five finalists from 24 state and provincial semifinalists, one of whom will be named Highway Hero for 1998.
The annual contest is the company’s way of recognizing truck drivers for helping motorists in distress, often at the risk of their own lives. A pool of 41 nominees was cut to 24 people — 22 from the United States and two from Canada — who received a State Highway Hero Award.
Five of those have been selected to vie for the top honor.
“Every year there are thousands of men and women who take major chances without any thanks at all,” said Mike Thomann, marketing director for commercial tires. “We want to be sure that we recognize everyone we can.”
The program was created in 1983, and the winners are selected by a panel of independent judges.
he five drivers will be introduced at the Mid-America Trucking Show, which runs from March 25 to 27 in Louisville, Ky. During the event, one of them will be named Goodyear North America Highway Hero.
The finalists are:
Christopher Sackos, an independent driver who lives in Lawrence, Mass., saw a barely conscious woman lying along the roadside on Interstate 495 near Andover, Mass. Sackos parked his truck to prevent other drivers from striking the injured woman. He kept the woman warm with his jacket and a blanket until help arrived.
Wayne Carpenter, a driver for Cheshire Oil Co., witnessed a head-on collision between a truck and a car while hauling a load through Durham, N.H. Carpenter, who lives in Keene, N.H., rushed to aid the victims and emptied his fire extinguisher on the burning vehicles without success. The truck driver and a passenger in the car managed to free themselves from the wreckage. After several attempts, Carpenter was able to pull the driver from the flaming car. He aided the victims and called rescue personnel. Despite his efforts, the car driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
Jamie Pritchard of Elk Park, N.C., was killed while helping a woman and four children escape from their wrecked vehicle that was sideswiped into a guardrail on Interstate 81 near Marion, Va. Pritchard, who drove for Jack Hicks Inc., was extracting one of the children when he saw another vehicle heading straight toward the car. After thrusting the child back inside the car, he was fatally struck by the vehicle.
Michael Asselin and Mark Savarie, both of Marstay, Ontario, are the first Canadians nominated for the honor, which was expanded last summer to include Canada. The two, driving separate rigs for ETI Transport, came upon a burning truck on Highway 17 in Sudbury, Ontario, and tried to douse the fire. When they discovered that the vehicle was transporting explosives, the two men freed its driver. Savarie moved his partner’s truck down the road to create a barricade that prevented others from approaching the danger. When the burning rig exploded, it destroyed Savarie’s new truck that was parked nearby and threw debris nearly two miles. However, no one was hurt in the explosion.
