Time Running Out to Nominate a Highway Hero

AKRON, OH —  Do you know a truck driver who risked life and limb to save someone? If so, one company wants to hear the story and soon.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. is accepting nominations for its 33^rd North America Highway Hero Award on its website, but you need to hurry because the deadline is Nov. 29.

The award was established in 1983 to honor truck drivers who put themselves in harm’s way to help others.

For instance, the 32nd Goodyear Highway Hero Award winner, Clinton Blackburn, a truck driver from Morehead, KY., rescued a law enforcement official who was being strangled by a prisoner he was transporting.

The previous year’s Goodyear Highway Hero Award winner, Ivan Vasovic, rescued a fellow truck driver from a burning tanker truck that was hanging over the side of a freeway overpass.

Other past Highway Hero Award winners include a truck driver who rescued a family of six from a crushed minivan, a driver who saved a woman from a gun-wielding attacker, and a driver who pulled an elderly man from a car before it was destroyed by an oncoming train.

To nominate a truck driver for Goodyear’s 33rd Highway Hero Award, click on this link, fill out the nomination form, and hit the “submit” button. This will send your nomination directly to Goodyear. 

For consideration, candidates must meet the following criteria:

• Must be a full-time truck driver
• Must reside in the U.S. or Canada
• The heroic incident must have happened in the U.S. or Canada
• Nominee’s truck must have had 12 wheels or more at the time of the incident
• Nominee must have been on the job – or on the way to and from work, in his or her truck – at the time of the incident
• Incident must have taken place between Nov. 16, 2014, and Nov. 16, 2015

After the Goodyear Highway Hero Award nomination period ends on Nov. 29, the list of eligible Highway Hero Award candidates will be narrowed down to three finalists. A panel of trucking industry judges will later select the 33rd Goodyear Highway Hero.

Goodyear will announce its 33rd Highway Hero Award winner next March during the 2016 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY.