Goodyear Highway Hero honored for saving little girl

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Goodyear crowned truck driver Richard Filiczkowski as its 25th Highway Hero at the Mid-America Trucking Show last week.

Richard and his wife Janet are credited for saving the life of 8-year-old Abby Bern from a car about to be submerged in a pond.

Janet Filiczkowski was driving the C.R. England rig along a quiet stretch of Interstate 90 about 100 miles west of Sioux Falls, S.D. when she saw a car cross four lanes of traffic and careen into a pond. She yelled for her husband, Richard, who was resting in the sleeper. He quickly dressed, grabbed his shoes and ran a quarter-mile to the scene.

“I dove right in because I saw Abby pounding on the car’s back window. My only instinct was to get her out of the car as soon as possible. In situations like that, seconds count,” Filiczkowski said.

Also inside the car and submerged in 8 feet of water was Abby’s father. Rescuing the Worthington, Minn., girl, then 8, proved to be easier than pulling an unconscious Jeff Bern, a 42-year-old pediatrician and father of three, from the driver’s seat.

Two other men joined Filiczkowski in the water, but the car doors were stuck. They somehow managed to open the rear hatch, and Filiczkowski carried the girl to Janet, who worked to warm the girl and distract her from the rescue attempts on her father.

Dr. Bern was held in his car by a seat belt. One of the men found a pocketknife on shore and used it to cut part of the seat belt; Filiczkowski cut the remainder, but the man’s legs remained lodged under the steering column.

One rescuer freed one of the man’s legs, and Filiczkowski dislodged the other. After 10 minutes, the truck driver finally pulled the father from the car and swam to shore, but it was too late.

“I wish I was faster for him. My only regret, I just wish I was faster,” Richard said.

David Virgoe, of Innisfil, Ont., was the other driver nominated — the first posthumously. Virgoe, a driver with Wilburn Archer Trucking, swerved his empty tanker truck to avoid three street-racing cars, slammed into the median guardrail and veered off the highway to avoid colliding with oncoming traffic. He died in the accident.

For more on Goodyear’s Highway Hero program and to nominate a truck driver for the 26th anniversary of the award, go to www.goodyear.com/truck/news/hero.html.