A B.C. truck driver is being hailed as a hero after he stopped a moving car whose driver was suffering from a medical emergency.
On July 19, Jaspreet Singh was on Annacis Island and turning off Highway 91 to Cliveden Avenue East when the car in front of him suddenly stopped in the road.
Singh, who has only been with the company Wood Wyant for just over a month, stopped behind him, his dashcam capturing what was happening.
“It didn’t move for a good five seconds,” Singh told Global News.
He thought the driver might be on his phone but then he looked through the rear-view window and saw the driver looking back at him.
As he got out of his truck to find out more, the car started rolling downhill.
“So luckily somehow, the guy had the driver’s side window open just enough that I could get my arm (in) and I roll the window down first,” Singh said.
“And then I tried to steer it towards the island so they would hit it and stop by itself. But then, I just dived into the car, put the car in park and turned it off, and that’s how it ended up stopping.”
He said he just knew he had to do that to try and stop the car from rolling into traffic.
“I had one hand on the steering wheel, one hand on the gear lever, and then I was just hanging off the side of the car basically as it was rolling downhill,” Singh added.
He said he wasn’t even thinking about his own personal safety in the moment, he just knew he had to try and do something.
“He also had a four-year-old little girl in the back seat, and then she was also crying at the top of her lungs because, of course, it was scary,” Singh added.
“And I’m trying to wake this guy up. And then I’m also on the call with 911. So you’re … doing two or three things at the same time and then managing traffic that’s going on the other side. So it was an intense situation, but luckily it all turned out, you know, nobody got hurt.
Acting Staff Sgt. Mike Whitely with Delta Police told Global News they were made aware of the incident from a passerby who went to check out what happened.
“It turns out that driver had a medical event while driving over the Alex Fraser Bridge,” he said. “And when the officer got there, fire was already treating the driver who ended up going off to hospital. But there was a child in the backs eat as well, and luckily there were no injuries in this incident and the child was picked up by a family member shortly thereafter.”
Whitely said they didn’t actually know there was anyone else involved or that Singh had stopped to help.
“That’s great to hear,” he said.
“We like it when the public helps each other out, obviously. And in this case, there were no injuries and everybody was safe at the end, which is nice.”
Singh said he doesn’t feel like a hero, he just did what he needed to do in the moment to stop an accident from happening.
“I think anyone in my position would have done the same thing,” he said. “I would hope so.
“I was there at the right time, right place. I’m just glad that nobody got hurt.”
— with files from Paul Johnson
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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