Goodyear Announces Highway Hero Award Finalists
Last year’s Goodyear Highway Hero Award winner, Julian Kaczor. Photo: Deborah Lockridge
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Last year’s Goodyear Highway Hero Award winner, Julian Kaczor. Photo: Deborah Lockridge
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Goodyear Tire& Rubber has announced the finalists for its 34th Goodyear Highway Hero Award, honoring truck drivers who put themselves in harm’s way to help others.
Finalists for this year’s Goodyear Highway Hero Award include a driver who rescued an unconscious motorist from a minivan that had flipped over, a driver who pulled a mother and her three children from a car that was upside-down in a creek bed, and a driver who stopped an out-of-control dump truck and administered first aid to its incapacitated driver.
The overall winner will be announced during the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., on March 23.
Here are this year’s Goodyear Highway Hero Award finalists:
Chris Baker, a driver from Chicopee, Mass. Baker was driving down a New Jersey highway when he spotted flickering lights ahead. Pulling closer to investigate, he found a minivan that had flipped over onto its side. Flames erupted from the vehicle’s engine. Grabbing his fire extinguisher, he ran to the van and put out the fire.
By then, the van’s passenger had escaped and crawled to safety, but its unconscious driver remained inside, hanging from a seat belt. Working with a bystander, Baker unfastened the driver’s seat belt, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him away from the van. Baker stayed by his side until rescue crews arrived. The man survived and did not suffer any significant injuries.
Tim Freiburger, a driver from Huntington, Ind. Freiburger was driving through Indiana when he saw a car lose control and drive into a creek, where it flipped and came to a stop, upside down in standing water. Freiburger raced to the car, which contained a mother and her three children. He broke a window and pulled the children out of the car.
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