I was driving late at night when a van came flying down the highway next to my truck. Normally, I don’t look down at vehicles, but something inside me told me to look down into this van. What I saw had my stomach in knots. Through one small window on the side of the van, I saw several small children in car seats that were bolted to the floor. The children were all crying. The woman driving the van was alone in the front and there were no other adults with her. I felt instantly that these children had all been abducted. I felt this had to have been a transport. This was before cell phones existed so there wasn’t an option to just pick up the phone and call 911. Unfortunately, the van got away before I was able to get in touch with someone by radio to call 911. To this day, I don’t know if the children were ever rescued. This incident had an impact on me and moved me to learn more about human trafficking and how to report it.

I help educate other drivers by sharing stories and experiences and helping make it real for people. I make it personal: I tell people – this could be your child, grandchild or sibling. If everyone would pay attention, we could all make a huge difference in someone’s life. I tell people that it is better to call for help and be wrong than to do nothing at all and be right about suspicious activity. I will continue to work to raise awareness and educate as many people as I can about the reality of this crisis in our country.

As truck drivers, we are the eyes and ears on the road. There are over 3 million drivers on America’s roads: we’re all over the nation. We can see things that the public and even law enforcement cannot. Truck drivers are often overlooked because people are so used to seeing trucks on the road, but since we’re always paying attention and alert, we are able to see everything around us.