TCA Pulls Highway Angel Honor

The Truckload Carriers Association has revoked a Highway Angel award after it was reported that what a driver said was a human trafficking incident he foiled was actually a family whose kids were sleeping in the back of a pickup truck.

As HDT reported based on a TCA news release, a driver only identified by his first name, Michael, was at a dark rest stop just off I-10 around 1 a.m. June 18 in a border state. A white pickup truck with a tarp and cage pulled up in front of him and a woman got out of the truck and went around to the back of it and, in the driver's words, took a padlock off of the cage and pulled out three or four little girls and "forced the kids into the restroom.”

The driver called the police, according to the release, and told TCA that the police said several of the children had been reported missing and that there were more children in the cage. 

However, a "Lead Stories Fact Check" story said when it checked with the New Mexico State Police, they were told that this story was not correct; that it was a mother and her four children, not a human trafficking incident.

Apparently, while the driver did believe he saw a human trafficking incident and contacted the police, when the officer stopped the vehicle, he found that a mother was traveling with her brother and her four children from Mexico back to their residence in Arizona. Three of the children were in the bed of the truck sleeping in a wooden structure under a tarp. The mother was given seatbelt citations for having the children unrestrained in the back of the truck.

In a statement, the Truckload Carriers Association said, "TCA’s Highway Angels program recognizes truck drivers who have gone out of their way to help others and save lives on the road, and we realize their impact on the industry and communities across the country. We were disappointed to hear of the illegitimacy of a story which we reported on August 16 concerning an incident along I-10 with professional driver Michael and have revoked his Highway Angel title. We want to protect the integrity of these important awards and are actively working to ensure the legitimacy of future Highway Angels’ stories."