February 2001

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Roses and razzberries

Truckdrivers traveling through Greenville, SC, recently assisted police officers in the apprehension of a robbery suspect. The truckers used their rigs as a roadblock to stop the suspect.

An off-duty police officer reportedly saw a man run out of a bank and get into a car where a dye pack in the moneybag exploded. The State newspaper said multiple attempts to stop the getaway vehicle were unsuccessful. Greenville County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Mike Brown told the newspaper that even a flat tire didn't stop the suspect as the chase through Greenville led onto Interstate 85. But suddenly, one of the posse members had an "18 Wheels of Justice" kind of brainstorm. One of the pursuing deputies contacted two truckers ahead of the car on I-85. The semis blocked the right two-lanes of the highway by pulling parallel with one another, Brown said. ROSES to two cool-headed truckers.

RAZZBERRIES to the Daily Hampshire Gazette's Cindy Hamel, who kicked off the new year with a 12-month advisory entitled "How to treat the world better." Ironically, she suggested eating more seasonal fruits and veggies in June as they are more nutritious and "did not travel hundreds of miles in a gas-guzzling tractor-trailer."

A very grateful mom writes LL that her daughter was involved in an accident on I-70 on Dec. 15, at Bates City, MO, between mile marker 31 and 37 at about 11:30 a.m. "Of course the first person on the scene was a truckdriver," writes Katy O'Connor. "He called the police and an ambulance and helped pull my daughter from her truck. I asked her if she knew the name of the company and she didn't. She thought the colors on the truck were yellow and green, but didn't see a name." Katy wants to give a ROSE to this driver and to say thank you.

A ROSE to the trucker who pulled a woman from her burning car on Illinois' East-West Tollway on Nov. 14 after her car was hit from behind by an alleged drunk driver. State Police Master Sgt. Todd Macklin said, "He stopped to help and then he just kept going." Later, troopers said they identified the trucker as Bill Delph. Delph will be nominated for the Illinois State Police Special Award honoring him for his actions as a Good Samaritan.

ROSES to AIG Insurance Co. for their newsletter, "Staying in touch with you," issue no. 4, vol. 1. On the back page of this newsletter is a feature called "Thanks for Sharing." In the feature, a policyholder from Nevada explained a "no zone" and on the same page, it states that 70 percent of fatal crashes between cars and trucks is the not the fault of the truck. For once, somebody outside the trucking industry got this right.

The truckin' in-crowd of the Net were buzzing on Thanksgiving Day about the TA near Athens, GA, being closed for the holiday. RAZZBERRIES? Manager Pete Raper, told Land Line he apologizes for the closing. "We are usually open 365 days, but I couldn't get any restaurant help to work that day," he said. "The county has a 2.2 percent unemployment rate, plus this TA is in the middle of changing ownership, it will soon be 100 percent TA." Yes, the TA was open for Christmas.

Newspaper columnist/trucker's wife Isabel Lyman sends us an article by Justine Murphy (Daily Hampshire Gazette) with a "ROSY" story. On Dec. 15, a town resident of Williamsburg, MA, said the driving skills of a trucker saved her teen-age daughter's life. Denise Edwards said her daughter was driving on a slippery road and lost control of her car and spun out.
At the same time, Donald L. Slapes, 58, of Hudson, NH, was driving his tractor-trailer east on the road. Slapes swerved off the road to avoid the car.
Although both vehicles were damaged and both drivers hospitalized, Mrs. Edwards said it could have been much worse. She says if it were not for Don Slapes' expert driving, her daughter would not be alive.

About 13 years ago, Managing Editor Sandi Soendker says she was but a lowly staff writer at Land Line and talked to a guy from the Dumont/Downieville, CO, Truck Stop. He wanted to give a discount to OOIDA members. So he did just that and she wrote up a little story. "I had just started working for LL, didn't know much about trucking, so Todd and Jim didn't let me write the big stories," Sandi recalls. "So this was about my big scoop of the year."
Last week, Sandi got an e-mail from an OOIDA member named Karen Tucker who nominated the truckstop for a rose. It seems that to this day, they still give discounts to OOIDA members "just 'cause they want to." ROSES to Gary Young, who started the discounts, and to Lynn Franz, who's been the manager at the Downieville Conoco for 12 years.

Sarah Bogard, 16, of Berwick, PA, is a writer for the (Bloomsbury) Press-Enterprise. ROSES to this high school journalist for showing the public trucking from a daughter's point of view. Sarah took to the road with her dad, David Bogard, of Bloomsbury, in order to write about trucking. Not only did it inform her readers, Sarah says she has a new appreciation for her trucking father.

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