NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas -- On the road every minute of every day, they are the traveling tons of steel and rubber that are difficult to miss. Only on May 7, 2010, Wanda and John Lindsay never saw the oncoming truck.
"We were stopped in a line of traffic in a construction zone just coming into the west side of Texarkana," recalled Lindsay. "Sometime in that moment, a Celadon tractor trailer slammed into the back of our car."
At more than 50 miles an hour, the semi truck instantly crushed the back of the Lindsay's Hyundai. Pictures show their car destroyed, one of several in a mangled mess nearly 100 yards long.
The driver admitted to being distracted, telling police he took his eyes off the road.
Lindsay's 45-year marriage ended two days later, when husband John died from massive head injuries.
"It's like having half of your heart ripped out of your body," said Lindsay. "I can't even put it into words. It's just the most devastating loss, a hollow pain that just beats you down."
The loss left Lindsay struggling to move on, searching for answers to a question she couldn't ignore.
"How could a truck, a 40 ton semi tractor trailer come into a construction zone traveling at that speed with his cruise control on? That just didn't make sense," said Lindsay.
But a medical report did make sense. A lawsuit filed by Lindsay against the Celadon trucking firm revealed doctors diagnosed the truck driver with severe sleep apnea. The diagnosis came two months before the wreck -- plenty of time, Lindsay argues, to treat the problem.
"They put him out there on the highway, a ticking bomb, and he killed my husband," Lindsay said.
The Celadon truck company denies having been aware of their driver's condition at the time of the crash. What can't be denied, is the danger posed when anyone suffering from untreated sleep apnea gets behind the wheel.
"I pay a lot of attention to what's going on around me when I'm driving down the road. I'm scared," said Dr. David Duhon at the Sleep Disorder Center of Central Texas.
"This is an epidemic disease," said Duhon. "The airway doesn't have to close, and most of the time it doesn't; most of the time it simply narrows enough so that you can't get enough air and it opens up again, but it does that over and over again."
The breathing problems lead to poor sleep, leaving sufferers in a near constant state of drowsiness.
"You may not fall asleep, but you don't react as fast," Duhon said. "The faster you're driving, the less time you have to react to something around you.
Duhon says left untreated, sleep apnea makes drivers seven times more likely to get into a car wreck involving injuries. A national study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found nearly a third of all commercial vehicle drivers suffer from sleep apnea. That doesn't even take into account the countless number of others suffering from the disease.
Today in her New Braunfels home-turned-foundation-headquarters Lindsay runs a new non profit. Last July, she founded the John Lindsay Foundation to spread sleep apnea awareness.
"It is actually an epidemic in the trucking industry and the fact that they are not doing anything about it is just not acceptable," Lindsay said.
With pictures of John close by, Lindsay now pushes for trucking companies to adopt sleep programs for drivers. Results are positive. Lindsay hopes a program by the Schneider Trucking Company becomes a model for all. Doctors screen drivers for sleep apnea. The decision cut medical costs and lowered the company's accident rate.
Still, not all trucking companies have followed with similar programs. The failure to screen only fuels Lindsay's effort.
"I know that anyone who has a husband or a wife or a child or a family member or a friend driving on those highways could be where I am tomorrow," said Lindsay. "If I can do something, just one thing, to prevent another family from going through the devastation that my family has been through then that's what I'll do. That's what I'll focus on."
Lindsay's lawsuit against Celadon Trucking was set to go to trial this week, but just a couple of days ago -- the two sides reached a settlement.
Celadon admitted Sleep Apnea affected its driver's ablity to operate a truck and likely caused the wreck. The company is now working with a local hospital to screen all drivers for sleep apnea.
