Barrie student wins annual OTA memorial scholarship

TORONTO — The 2010 OTA Professional Driver Memorial Scholarship was awarded to David Lafferty Jr., a third-year student at the University of Guelph who is studying management economics in industry and finance.

The annual scholarship is awarded to a university or college student who is the son or daughter of a professional truck driver who has been killed or seriously injured while driving a commercial vehicle on the job.

It is funded by an endowed fund established by OTA and administered by the OTA Education Foundation, Inc.

David’s father, David Lafferty Sr., broke a vertebra in his spine in 1999 after the load in a shipper-loaded container that he was pulling shifted en-route, and caused the tractor-trailer to roll and then catch fire.

Two Samaritans pulled David from the burning cab. As a result of paraplegia he suffered from the incident, he is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

The annual scholarship was announced in 2007 after David Virgoe, a truck driver and truck hero, died in a crash caused by street racers on Highway 400.

Upon obtaining his Bachelor of Commerce degree, David hopes to attend graduate school at either the University of Toronto or the University of Western Ontario to obtain his Masters degree in business.