In The News

Highway Hero gets helping hands

Goodyear’s 2008 North America Highway Hero Jorge Orozco-Sanchez recently returned to truck driving after the trucking industry and other organizations pitched in to get the independent owner-operator back on the road.

Orozco-Sanchez had been out of work since an SUV crossed into his path and slammed into his tractor-trailer rig head-on last October. He rescued two young girls who were trapped in the burning vehicle, but he was unable to save the girl’s mother.

For his heroic act in saving the two girls, Orozco-Sanchez was awarded the Goodyear Highway Hero award in March at the Mid-America Truck Show in Louisville, Ky. However, because of a delay in his insurance settlement, he didn’t have a truck to return to driving, his family’s main source of income.

A team effort put him back on the road. First, The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association found him a 2005 Freightliner Columbia tractor in Missouri and a 2008 Timpte grain hopper in Illinois, and financed the purchase. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. donated 18 new Goodyear truck tires to replace worn tires on the tractor and trailer. Pilot Travel Centers donated a $250 fuel card to help Orozco-Sanchez pay for his trip to pick up the truck and trailer.

Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems’ location in East Peoria, Ill., mounted and balanced the new tires and equipped his trailer with new wheels.

Friends loaned Orozco-Sanchez the money to pay for the truck’s and trailer’s registration and licensing. And the Truck Writers of North America and its member organizations paid the $1,400 down payment due on his insurance.

“I am so grateful to everyone who helped me get back on the road,” said Orozco-Sanchez, who recently made his first two deliveries of grain from The Scoular Co.’s grain facility in Sterling, Colo., to the Five Rivers Feed lot outside Gilcrest, Colo. “This gives my family a chance to catch up with the bills. God bless everyone, and I want them to know I will work hard and try not to let them down.”

Tim Miller, Goodyear Commercial Tire marketing and communications manager, said “Jorge’s situation was extraordinary. We just felt strongly that he and his family shouldn’t continue to suffer financially when he had been so selfless in helping others.

Jami Jones, TWNA chairwoman, said the association’s officers also felt the “red tape that kept this special man off the road for nearly six months just didn’t seem right.”

For more on Goodyear’s Highway Hero program and to nominate a truck driver for the 27th anniversary of the award, go to http://www.goodyear.com/truck/news/hero.html .

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