The family of a trucker killed while swerving to avoid a motorist who cut him off is looking to educate the public on safe driving around semi trucks.
According to KETV 7 News, Truck driver Greg Brennan was driving a concrete truck on Highway 370 near Omaha, Nebraska when a car cut in front of him. Brennan then slammed on his brakes to avoid running over the smaller vehicle, causing his rig to roll. Brennan was crushed and killed in the wreck, but both the motorist and the passenger in the car survived the incident, just as Brennan intended.
“He had the right of way and if he would have gone straight, he would have gone right over them,” said Diane Burford, Brennan’s sister. “My brother saved the lives of two people.”
Now, in the wake of such an avoidable tragedy, Brennan’s family is looking to spread the word and educate the public about safe driving practices around semi trucks by raising money for PSA billboards via GoFundMe.
“I don’t ever want to see a tragedy like this happen to anybody else. It’s so senseless, it could have been avoided,” Burford said.
“A $5,000 campaign would get us six to eight months on billboards with what they call a PSA,” Brenna’s cousin Trish Haniszewski said.
“Ten thousand dollars would do two options: Either eight to twelve months and they pick the location of the billboards, or we pick and they’re up for three to four months.”
“It’s for Greg but it’s also for those other truck drivers that want to go home,” she said. “We’re gonna make this happen. We just need help from, not only the friends and family, but the public.”
Kate, Brennan’s 20 year old daughter, who recently lost her mother to cancer in addition to the loss of her truck-driving father, had this to say about the tragic incident: “they want to go home too.”
“If this could be avoided, if another life could be saved that’s our main goal. We want to put it out there just so that people can understand drive safe around big trucks. They’re not the enemy,” Burford said.
“Just slow down. These big truck drivers can’t stop quickly and they want to go home to their families too.”