Big Rig Hero
Published: August 9, 2007
A courageous 9-year-old boy and a quick-thinking, fast-running Good Samaritan may have saved a truck driver’s life.
Matthew Lovo Jr. had been riding with his father in a semi truck pulling two trailers loaded with lumber through St. Helens, Oregon on Tuesday afternoon when the senior Lovo suffered a medical emergency, lost consciousness and fell from the driver’s seat of the moving truck. The boy climbed into the driver’s seat and began steering the truck, which had traveled into oncoming lanes of traffic. Lovo Jr. steered the truck back into the correct lanes and used the C.B. radio to ask for help.
Someone heard his plea and told him to turn off the ignition key, which he did.
As that was happening, the semi truck passed St. Helens resident Christopher A. Howard, who was driving southbound into town and noticed a child at the wheel. Howard said the slowly moving truck gradually moved back into the northbound lanes as it approached him.
He immediately stopped his car and chased the truck on foot.
Howard soon caught the vehicle, jumped aboard, opened the driver’s door and applied the brakes, stopping the truck and blocking both northbound lanes of traffic on U.S. Highway 30. Lovo Sr. was treated at the scene and transported to the hospital for further evaluation.
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