Goodyear Highway Hero Searches for Bob Strickland Family

AKRON, Ohio, June 10 -- A Texas truck driver -- Goodyear's North American Highway Hero -- is searching for the family whose lives he saved.

Rick Dent, of Diana, Texas and a driver for Groendyke Transport Inc., is looking for Bob Strickland and his children, Megan and Paul. Formerly of Louisiana, the Stricklands are believed to have moved to Georgia.

"Everything happened so fast that day," Dent said. "My only regret is not keeping in touch with Bob and his family. It would be a wonderful experience to talk with them. I would especially like to see Megan, who was 3, but talked like a grownup. She was a pistol."

On July 14, 2004, Strickland's car swerved to miss a deer and landed in a 6-foot-deep water-filled ditch teeming with snakes, along U.S. Highway 84 near Jena, La. Dent swam to the sinking car and retrieved a screaming Megan, her brother Paul and father Bob.

Shortly afterward, Strickland wrote to Groendyke Transport to thank Dent for saving his family's lives. But that was the last anyone heard from the Louisiana man. Groendyke Transport officials said they've since tried to find Bob Strickland.

A representative for The Ellen DeGeneres Show said she encountered dead ends looking for the Stricklands.

"This man saved our lives. The car sank before he got me to the bank. I have a new respect for truck drivers," Strickland said in his letter to Groendyke.

"Bob Strickland described Rick Dent as a huge man, in a big red truck. He saw Rick Dent as larger than life . . . someone with a big heart. Other motorists may have continued on their way, but Rick Dent stopped to help someone in need. Because of that decision, three lives were saved, and Rick earned the right to be called a hero," said Donn Kramer, director of marketing for Goodyear commercial tire systems.

"Now, it would be nice for Rick to be able to talk with Bob Strickland and the children. In a way, it would be therapeutic for both men to talk about what happened that day," Kramer said.

If you know the whereabouts of Bob Strickland and his family, please call the Goodyear Highway Hero Hotline at 330-796-8183 or email dfwilkins@goodyear.com.

Meanwhile, Goodyear's other Highway Hero finalists have corresponded regularly with their survivors. In fact, David Tucker, of La Grande, Ore., a driver for Seneca Foods Corp., is scheduled to appear on the Montel Williams Show on Aug. 17 with the female California Highway Patrol officer that he was credited with saving.

Founded by Goodyear in 1983, the Highway Hero program recognizes professional truck drivers and the often unnoticed, life-saving rescues and roadside assistance they provide as their jobs take them across North America.

For more on Goodyear's Highway Hero program and to nominate a truck driver for the 2005 award, go to http://www.goodyear.com/truck/whatsnew/heroes.html.