And it not only involves the tendency in the mainstream media to blame big bad evil trucks for everything wrong on the highways, but it also involves the way some out there seem to value truckers’ lives less than other peoples’.

An OOIDA member by the name of Vern Shore called with one such example.

It happened in Canada. A woman with a child in the car suddenly pulled a U-turn – right in front of a truck.

The trucker ditched his vehicle, saving the woman from her own actions.

Vern points out a truth we all already know. If the woman and child had been killed – even though ultimately, they caused the collision – it would have been labeled a tragedy, and used to promote further legislation against and bad publicity about truckers.

Yet in the wake of the incident, no one is calling for better training for four-wheelers. No one is even chiding this woman for endangering her own child, for putting time convenience ahead of her life, and the life of both the child and trucker.

In fact, it was the trucker who suffered, and according to Vern, the incident received no coverage at all.

So how do we get something good out of this? I have a suggestion.

Write a letter to the editor, not only to the local newspaper, but to area TV stations, news radio stations and others. Post it as a comment on their Web sites as well.

Ask why they value that truckers’ life less.

Point out that he is a person, a family man, a father, a brother. Yes, if a woman and child were killed, that would be a tragedy. But why is it any less a tragedy if the trucker is killed?

Don’t be accusatory, don’t be profane. Be respectful. Ask them the question, put the ball in their court, and ask them to explain why they chose to cover one and not the other.

If you do that, you’ll be asking legitimate questions that deserve an answer.

Maybe you’ll get one, maybe you won’t. But no matter what, you will have planted the seed, to start them thinking about the way they cover things and how they treat different types of news.

That’s a valuable service, and if we do it again and again, eventually we will start the process of changing how news is covered.

I’ve said it before about this and other situations. Doing this right will take a long time. But important things done right often do.

And important things are worth the effort.