Press Conference Speakers
March 12, 2007

  • John Lannen, Executive Director, The Truck Safety Coalition
  • Jackie Gillan, Vice President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety; CRASH board member.
  • Joan Claybrook, President, Public Citizen; Chair, Citizens for Reliable & Safe Highways (CRASH)
  • Daphne Izer, of Lisbon, Maine, who founded Parents Against Tired Truckers (P.A.T.T.) after her son Jeff, 17, and three of his friends were killed October 10, 1993, by a tractor trailer driver who fell asleep at the wheel.
  • Nikki Hensley of Fostoria, Ohio, whose husband Virgil Lee Hensley was killed July 9, 1997, when a semi-truck driver, who was working for 19 hours straight, ran a stop sign and struck the side of their car, killing her husband instantly.  The truck driver walked away without any punishment when the Wood County Prosecutor dropped the case.  Nikki was left to raise their two sons who are now in college, and she is now a P.A.T.T. board member.
  • Jane Mathis of St. Augustine, Florida, whose son David and bride of five days, Mary, were driving home from their honeymoon on March 25, 2004, on I-95 near the Kennedy Space Center when they were killed in a fiery crash caused by a Winn-Dixie tractor trailer driver who fell asleep at the wheel.  The truck driver was never prosecuted.  David also was the son of Circuit Court Judge Robert Mathis.
  • Rob and Sherry Durk of Linden, Michigan, whose daughter Janelle Ann Marie Durk, 15, was killed July 6, 2006, in a crash caused by two semi tractor trailer drivers on I-70 in Clark County, IL.  One trucker was driving for 20 hours straight and crashed after falling asleep, which caused a traffic backup. The Durks stopped safely, but another semi hit them from behind, killing their teen daughter.  They were driving home to Michigan from a family reunion in Kansas.
  • Truck crash victims from around the nation will be in attendance, including FL, IL, KY, ME, MD, MI, MN, NJ, NM, NC, OH, OK, VA, and TX.