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The word “hero” remains one of the most powerful words to describe someone who goes above and beyond the call of duty to help someone else.

A whole year has passed since the moniker was bestowed on a soft-spoken truck driver from Colorado. OOIDA Member Jorge Orozco-Sanchez risked his own personal safety to rescue two young girls from a burning vehicle.

For 27 years now, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has helped to tell stories like Jorge’s, stories that put us in the moment and make us think about what we would have done.

These stories are told through the North American Highway Hero program, started by Goodyear in 1983 to show heroic deeds and humanitarian acts performed by professional truck drivers.

It’s time to nominate truckers for the 2009 award. If you know someone like Jorge, make sure to get a nomination form in to Goodyear by the deadline of Nov. 30.

Simply print out a form at goodyear.com/truck/news/hero.html and mail it to Goodyear Highway Hero Award Headquarters, Dept. 798A, 1144 E. Market St., Akron, OH 44316.

If you cannot access the form online, call the Goodyear Highway Hero Hotline at 330-796-8183.

To qualify:

• Nominee must be a full-time truck driver;
  
• Nominee must reside in the U.S. or Canada;
  
• The incident must have occurred in the U.S. or Canada;
  
• Nominee must be on the job or on the way to or from work, and in his/her rig at the time of the incident;
  
• Nominee’s truck at the time of the incident must have 14 wheels or more; and
  
• The incident must have occurred between Nov. 16, 2008 and Nov. 15, 2009.

Goodyear will announce a group of finalists leading up to the Mid-America Trucking Show held in the spring in Louisville, KY.

The 2009 North American Highway Hero will be named during MATS.

– By David Tanner, staff writer Land Line Magazine