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Selah Resident Is State Truck Driving Champion

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Peterson, who drives for Reddaway, now qualifies to compete in the American Trucking Associations' National Truck Driving Championships for four days, challenging their driving skills, and knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry. From 18-wheeler five axle sleepers to tank trucks to twin trailers—they will drive a course that recreates situations truck drivers face daily. These maneuvers may include: an alley dock, a rear line stop, a side park, a scale stop, a right turn, a front line stop, and straight line driving through a diminishing clearance.

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Video -- Selah lifeguard doesn't need hearing to save lives ...

SELAH, Wash. -- When Ashleigh Rice sits down to work, hundreds of people are under her watch. Her objective is to maintain a safe environment for swimmers and she watches the pool like a hawk.

From left to right, Rice watches swimmers splash and play at the city pool in Selah.

On the far side of the pool deck, a child tries to run away from an older sibling, while other children play nearby in the water.

She notices the kids are starting to get rough, but it's OK -- for now.

Midway through her scan, she sees a pre-teen reluctantly heading into deeper water as friends urge him on.

At the conclusion of her scan, Rice brings her whistle to her mouth to warn a couple of children to walk as they race to the slide.

Each day at the pool, she sees potential danger unfold. In the moment she's needed most, Rice doesn't need to hear.

She has been deaf since age 2 and can only say a few words.

"When swimmers try to talk with me, I say 'Wait, don't talk to me.' And I show them, with my hands, 'I'm deaf, I don't talk,'" Rice said via American Sign Language as her mom interpreted. "This is how I communicate."

Rice grew up swimming and always wanted to become a lifeguard -- like her mom.

"I really don't have a challenge, because watching people and being strong visually (is how) I help."

In her eight years of guarding, the 21-year-old credits her training for pulling many distressed swimmers out of the pool.

Rice has been trained by the Red Cross using point-to-point surveillance techniques to recognize if a swimmer needs help. But for someone with a hearing loss, "the job is not easy ... you have to open your eyes," she said.

That training is something that Stacey Bogar of the Inland Northwest Region of the American Red Cross is quite familiar with, having taught lifeguards since 2005.

"When you have 100 kids in a pool, there's going to be a lot of yelling and confusion going on. As a lifeguard, you are going to have to cut through that. When someone is actively drowning, they are not calling out," Bogar said. "So not being able to hear -- it's not an issue."

Through the years, lifeguarding techniques have improved, but many of the visual lifesaving skills remain timeless.

Rice and her fellow guards at the Selah pool use the same scanning skills that one of her heroes used through his long lifeguarding career.

LeRoy Colombo is a legendary figure among guards and was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for his more than 900 rescues. His career also serves as inspiration to Rice because the Texas lifeguard was also deaf.

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