Cullum Owings
About Cullum
Steve and Susan Owings lived in Atlanta, GA with their two boys, Cullum and Pierce. They were an incredibly close family. Cullum was a senior at Washington and Lee University in Virginia and Pierce was a freshman. Cullum was set to graduate with a degree in business. He had plans to join the Peace Corps after graduation. The two boys were the best of friends.
Crash Description
On December 1, 2002, Cullum and Pierce Owings were returning to Washington and Lee University after a visit home for Thanksgiving. They were traveling on Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County, Virginia when traffic slowed to a crawl and then stopped. Behind them, a fully loaded tractor trailer was speeding, using its cruise control. The driver didn’t touch the brakes until he was less than 100 feet from the stopped traffic. Cullum attempted to swerve his car into the median to avoid being hit, but the truck crashed into the vehicle, trapping their car against an embankment in the median. Cullum died before he could be freed from the wreckage. Pierce miraculously survived with minor injuries.
Life After the Crash
Since Cullum's death, Steve and his family have tried to keep others from experiencing their pain. They started the non-profit, Road Safe America, and have become leading advocates for policies to improve truck safety in the United States. RSA is committed to educating the public about and advocating for truck safety solutions like speed limiters and automatic emergency braking. In 2023, RSA merged with the Institute for Safer Trucking.
Over the last 20 years, Steve has testified before Congress about safer trucking reforms and served on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Motor Carrier Advisory Committee, which he also chaired for two years. He played an instrumental role in the introduction of the Cullum Owings Large Truck Safe Operating Speed Act in the current and previous sessions of Congress. The bill would require the use of speed limiters in large trucks set at a speed of 65mph, or 70mph with the use of adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking. Since the legislation was introduced, the FMCSA announced that it would be moving forward with a regulation to require the use of speed limiters in large trucks.
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