Families fOr Roadside Safety, Inc. (F.O.R.S.) was organized by Lara Feinberg, the wife of a state trooper with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. Lara began the organization the morning after attending the funeral of the second state trooper to be killed in their county in less than twenty months. Haywood County’s losses of Master Trooper Calvin E. Taylor on October 3, 2001 and Senior Trooper Anthony G. Cogdill on May 30, 2003 has left their community in shock and in fear. It is not the fear from a serial killer, but the fear from the dangers of Interstate 40. Both men were killed in separate instances by tractor-trailers that crossed onto the shoulder of I-40 killing them both, instantly, as they were issuing citations.
Our law enforcement officers and emergency and public service personnel risk their lives each and everyday to ensure the safety of the public. It is due time that the public does something to ensure the safety of these very people. With that in mind, F.O.R.S. Inc. was developed. F.O.R.S.’s proposals were gathered from the input of concerned citizens, law enforcement officers, emergency personnel and their families.
On June 13, 2003 a meeting was organized between North Carolina legislators, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, F.O.R.S., the North Carolina Trucking Association, local law enforcement officials and emergency personnel, the family of fallen Trooper Cogdill and other concerned citizens. Proposals were presented to Representative Raymond Rapp and to the Department of Transportation.
Since that time, the NC Department of Transportation has responded to our requests and has begun a statewide effort to add rumble strips to many interstates and highways. Additionally, four Emergency Roadside Areas [or Accident Investigation areas] have been added to sections of I-40 in Haywood County, NC to be studied for their effectiveness. In January of 2004, Families For Roadside Safety Incorporated began Project Move Over in an effort to educate motorists and raise awareness of roadside dangers. Please visit the Project Move Over section to learn more about our efforts and how you can help.
FORS has been featured on Good Morning America (twice), CNN and FOX News as well as may other media venues across the country.
We look forward to your help and support. Too many tears have been shed and too many good-byes have been said.
Rumble strips on the side of a Florida interstate.
