Hero boy, 10, saves mum in car
Youngster took over wheel after mum has a seizure and, helped by a lorry driver, got car into side of the road
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A 10-YEAR-OLD boy has been praised after taking over the steering wheel when his mum fell ill while driving – and managing to get the car into the side of the road with the help of a passing lorry driver.
Young Idris was being taken to school by his mother and they were on the Péripherique in Lyon when she is thought to have suffered a seizure and blacked-out.
He grabbed the wheel of the Opel Corsa but could not stop the car from weaving from side to side. This caught the attention of a lorry driver who saw what was happening and managed to pull alongside.
The driver told east of France newspaper Le Progrès: “I saw the little boy who had taken the wheel and he was looking at me desperately. The car continued and I lowered my window and heard the engine revving hard but saw the gears were in neutral and the mother was unconscious.
“I wanted to protect them and the car kept zigzagging into the crash barrier and started to slow down. As soon as it stopped I jumped down from the lorry, opened the door and pulled on the handbrake before cutting the engine.
“The youngster and I just looked at each other: he was very upset at what had happened.”
He added: “It was just in time because there was a traffic jam a few hundred yards ahead.”
The youngster later told Le Progrès: “When I was younger my mother had let me take the wheel while on her knee. There, she started all of a sudden to shake. It was the first time I’d seen her like that. I was scared.
“I put the warning lights on but couldn’t pull the handbrake – in fact, I wanted only to avoid crashing the car!”
His mother is thought to have had an epileptic seizure and was taken to a local hospital.
