Driver Lifestyles

Road Angels: Steve and Kim Cooper

It was Tuesday night, November 25.

Steve and Kim Cooper were headed northbound on I-75 in Kentucky, with a load going to Detroit. Kim was taking her usual night shift driving duties and spotted an accident ahead. She pulled the couple's D unit over to the side, awakened Steve and dialed 911.

Steve ran to the scene and discovered a tractor-trailer had rolled down an embankment on the shoulder of the road, coming to rest in a ravine.

When Steve reached the truck which was already engulfed in flames, he says,"I heard the driver screaming for help. I couldn't just leave him there."

Steve says the trucker was confined in the cab of his vehicle because of the crash and his seat belt, but he managed to free him. The driver's legs were burning as Steve and another passing motorist pulled the severely injured victim 20 yards up a hill away from the burning truck just before the fuel tank exploded.

"It sounded like a cannon going off," says Steve. "Something hit me in the chest and the concussion must have thrown me 10 feet."

A Kentucky State police officer told Steve that the trucker would have undoubtedly perished in another 30 or 40 seconds if he had not been rescued.

The victim, Ronnie Sanders of Hope, IN, suffered third-degree burns on about 40 percent of his body and was treated at a Cincinnati hospital. After a 3-hour stay in a local hospital for smoke inhalation and tests, Steve was released with a clean bill of health.

Steve's heroic act drew praise from Matt Casey of Panther Expedited Services, Inc. who said in an email to Steve, "You displayed courage and valor in pulling someone from a truck on fire. We want to let you know how proud we are of what you have done. You should be proud of your quick action and selfless acts."

Steve modestly says, "It wasn't a question of my being brave, believe me, I didn't want to be there. But, with my training in the service and my work as a paramedic from years before, instinct and adrenaline took over. I'm just thankful that Ronnie Sanders survived."

"Overall, it was one heck of a night!"


His story
Steve Cooper, 59, is from Tulsa, OK and has a rich and varied working background that includes working as a U.S. Navy corpsman attached to a Marine division in Vietnam where he himself was quite badly wounded by a boobytrap. Unsure of what to do upon leaving the service, he spent a couple of years with the New Orleans Police Department as a paramedic.

Steve was accepted at the Medical School at the University of Oklahoma but after two and a half years he decided he didn't want to be a doctor. He then became a Physician's Assistant and worked in a small emergency room in Oklahoma. It was at that time he says, that he reached a burn-out point stemming from his time in Vietnam.

Steve then entered the medical sales field and worked his way up the corporate ladder and after 20 years he had reached his pinnacle in that profession. He then opened his own company selling physical therapy rehabilitation equipment until he sold the business in 1999. He moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and secured his Ocean Captains License, started a charter boat business and became a diving instructor.

Steve picks up the story: "I put the company up for sale and found a buyer from Oregon. We closed the deal at my attorney's office about the time the planes were hitting the towers on Sept. 11, 2001."

"A few years later, I lost my tail in the market as did many others. I needed to generate an income so I turned to an occupation I had worked in during the winters in the charter boat business. I used to run for MS Carriers from the end of October until the middle of April with my own tractor and then park it for the summer."

"By that time, I had gotten divorced and shortly thereafter, I met Kim. We started a business hand-sculpting area rugs. It was tedious work and we needed to make a better income so I ran for CR England for about a year before Kim joined me in the truck. We had been on the road together for about a year when our house back in Oklahoma burned down and we lost everything."

He continues: "We took 3 months off after that, sold our burned-out house and property and bought another, though smaller, house nearby. We were able to pay cash for it so we were debt-free. I didn't want to resume the rug business, but we needed to do something."

"Kim had been a school teacher when we met but did not want to go back to teaching. I missed driving truck and we wanted some kind of work where we could be together."

"One day, I went online and started researching expediting because I didn't know anything about it. I found ExpeditersOnline.com, started reading the articles and I told Kim, let's give this a try."

A new career
"Steve explains, "As it happened, a Texas-based fleet owner named Leo Bricker had a truck for sale in the Classifieds section. Leo offered us a job driving the truck to see if we liked expediting, so we went to work for Leo and Panther Expedited Services. Well, after two weeks, I told Leo that we loved the work and if I was going to stay with it, I wanted a truck of my own."

"We bought the truck and have been owner-operators with Panther's Elite Services since May '08 and we absolutely love it!"


Her story
Kim Cooper, 52, is originally from Tahlequa, OK. A graduate of Oklahoma State University with a degree in education. A stay at home mom who busied herself raising her daughter, she began her teaching career when she was forty.

When her first marriage ended, she returned to Tahlequa where she met Steve and "fell madly in love!" When they married in 2004, she left teaching and the couple moved to Colorado where they began a sculptured rug business and raised horses.

"Steve and I actually get along better in the truck than we do at home what with all the bills, the stress and everybody going different directions," says Kim. "Out here on the road, we just seem to be in each other's pocket and we love it."

"When Steve first broached the subject of team driving, I was reluctant, but we needed to do something to help our financial situation."

"I'm a tough old girl, raised in a farm environment and used to hard work, but I wouldn't have done this without Steve. He does just about everything for us. All I have to do is drive, make coffee for Steve and take care of the pets, but we have a true team operation."

She says of her new occupation: "I love expediting! I will never go back to a big truck, ever! I remember back when we were driving tractor-trailer, I passed a woman in an expediting truck and she was dressed nicely and appeared to a be refined person, a lady. I thought to myself, that's what I want to do."

"This truck's living quarters are wonderful because I can have my computer, my projects and my cat. The work is not stressful like it was when we were running coast-to-coast in the big truck."

"We have our downtime and we can frequent restaurants, Target and Walmart and we're not stuck at a truck stop."

During layovers, Kim tells us, she fills the hours with her sewing and audiobooks while Steve spends time on the computer or watching TV, particularly Oklahoma Sooner football.

"We're a truck divided, you might say," Kim states. "He's an OU fanatic while I graduated from 'that other school' - Oklahoma State University."

"The shippers and receivers love us, they're happy to see us. They're friendly, cooperative and pleasant and that is such a change from the big truck."

Steve echoes his co-driver's thoughts:
"When we were with CR England we drove a refrigerated truck.
When we hit a dock, we always had to wait in line and for some reason, the shippers and receivers always treated us like dirt.
They would look at us like we were nothing but low-life truck drivers."

"Now, more often than not, when I climb back into the truck after loading/unloading, I'll tell Kim, 'Gee I love this job!'
They appreciate what we do and they show it."

The Coopers carry their family with them - a Golden Retriever named Journey that Steve says is twice the size of a normal dog as well as a cat that is actually "the boss of the truck."


The things you see on the road
The Coopers have had a few adventures during their time as professional drivers:

Kim tells us, "We were in Arizona when we spotted a drunk driver who was all over the road. We were able to contact the local sheriff and Highway Patrol and Steve gave them directions on how to find the driver."

"Well, they stopped the driver and arrested her only to discover that she was on America's Most Wanted list. She had been a fugitive for six years after being convicted of killing her ex-husband and his two children."


Their home on the road
The Cooper's ride is a 2006 Sterling 960 with a 22' box and 96" sleeper. Comfort items include a convection microwave, a 26" flat screen hooked to an in-motion satellite system and Bose surround sound system. The truck mounts a Rigmaster generator along with liftgate, pallet jacks, etc.


Their carrier
"We do Canadian runs, government loads and Haz-Mat - we do it all," says Steve.

"We went into Panther headquarters and spent a few days with Dispatch and Customer Service. We left with a new-found respect for what those folks deal with on a daily basis and how they keep their composure with everything they've got going on."

"We've been approached by other carriers, but I feel we have a great relationship with Panther, so I think we'll stay here."

Steve and Kim Cooper - good folks to have around in an emergency.