Daphne Izer received two national honors in Washington, D.C. this summer for her work advocating to keep the country’s highways safe, inspired by the tragic loss of her son.

The Lisbon woman founded Parents Against Tired Truckers after Jeff and three of his friends were killed on the Maine Turnpike in October 1993; a fifth teen was seriously injured. Izer was one of 11 people honored by the White House in May as a 2014 Transportation Champion of Change at a ceremony in the executive office building.

“It was quite an honor to be there; it was emotional and bittersweet,” Izer said. “We’d much rather have our son than receive any honor.”

In June, she was back in D.C. to receive a Highway Safety Hero Award from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. The retired nurse squeezed in another trip to D.C. between the two awards to sit in on a congressional Appropriations Committee hearing about a new trucking proposal and meet with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins after.

Name: Daphne Izer

Age: 68

Hometown: Lisbon (formerly Sunnyside, Newfoundland, Canada)

When accepting your Champions of Change award, what would you have said to the president, given the chance? The process to get changes made takes entirely too long. The only time change happens is when opposition to new safety rules has exhausted every avenue of stalling. Crashes involving heavy trucks cause 4,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries every year. This is totally unacceptable.

When visiting D.C., I always: Am out straight with truck safety issues. Just this past March, we took our 10-year-old grandson down and for the first time in 20 years we toured the museums, monuments, etc. with him. I highly recommend the Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus tour.

Site/place there you’d recommend to Mainers going there: Any of the Smithsonian museums. A favorite of ours is the National Museum of Natural History.

What’s been the highlight of your advocacy work over the last 20 years? Saving lives, first and foremost. Getting life-saving legislation passed both on the state and federal levels.

Frustration of the last 20 years? Dealing with the bureaucracy of politics. We learned in the early years no changes happen quickly in the the federal government. So we keep putting pressure on where necessary and persevere at all times.

Do you feel like there’s been real progress made in raising awareness and changing attitudes? Yes, most definitely.

Do you ever get any feedback from truckers themselves? (We’ve) heard from hundreds of truck drivers over the years. Lack of rest areas in many states was a common problem and we have worked tirelessly on that issue. Of course, truck driver pay is a major issue — being “paid by the mile” promotes fatigue. Too many of them do not get paid for all time worked (e.g. loading and unloading). Until drivers are paid for all time worked and included under the protection of the Fair Labor Standards Act nothing much will change. We have gotten an education by listening and talking to drivers.

What would you like people to know about Jeff and his friends? Jeff had a wonderful outgoing personality and loved having fun. Dawn Marie, Angie, Katie and Linda were with him and they were on their way to a haunted hayride in Gorham the night they were killed. The tollbooth worker recalled them singing and laughing as they pulled up to the tollbooth.

kskelton@sunjournal.com