Looking For The Next Highway Hero

Truck drivers aren’t only the folks who bring just about everything consumers use, sometimes they help save lives.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber has launched its annual nomination process for finding the next winner of its Highway Hero Award.

The award, established in 1983, is the company’s way of honoring truck drivers who have gone the extra mile to help others. The nomination process is open through Nov. 29.

Previous winners have performed all sorts of acts of heroism. Last year’s winner, Canadian driver Frank Vieria, saved the life of a motorist who was seriously injured in a collision with another truck. Other recipients have brought a rolling truck to a stop after its driver had fallen unconscious at the wheel, rescued a law enforcement officer who was being strangled by a prisoner he was transporting and dove into a pond to save a child from a sinking car.

The first winner of the award, Ronnie Stapleton, an explosives hauler from West Virginia, used his hands to tear off the back door of a burning car, then broke the back seat to rescue the vehicle’s two unconscious occupants.

“We recognize truck drivers and the role they play in keeping our economy and way of life rolling, but these professional drivers deliver more than just goods and services,” Goodyear marketing director Gary Medalis said. “They are often first responders to on-highway incidents, even before emergency crews arrive on the scene, taking decisive action to save lives."

To be eligible, a candidate must be a full-time trucker driver, U.S. or Canadian resident, on or en route to the job in their truck of 12 wheels or more and the incident must have happened in the United States or Canada between Nov. 16, 2017 and Nov. 16, 2018.

Three finalists will be selected and the winner, chosen by a panel of trucking industry media and vetted by Goodyear, will be announced in March 2019.

Nominations can be made through the Goodyear website or by mail to the Goodyear Highway Hero Awards Headquarters, Dept. 798A, 200 Innovation Way, Akron, Ohio 44316.