WINNIPEG -- A southern Ontario fire chief is being hailed for risking a possible injury in order to stop a runaway truck in a Winnipeg shopping centre parking lot.
Brian George, who lives in Strathroy, west of London, was heading home on Saturday after visiting his daughters in northern Manitoba.
George was fixing a tire in the west-side lot when he heard a strange noise and looked up to see a driverless pickup going in circles backwards.
He says the desperate owner was part way into the vehicle and was knocked over, but not hurt.
The truck hit a luxury car and George feared it might slam into a light pole and cause further damage, so he managed to get in and hit the brakes.
He says after 30 years as a firefighter, his immediate thought was to do something to help.
George said he tried a few times to jump in, trying not to get hit by the truck, when it slowed down enough for him to get aboard.
"There was a whole bunch of people taking pictures with their phones, not one offering to help the poor guy, so I jumped in. I had to get it done, much to my wife's chagrin."
Dale Longclaws was coming out of a bank when he heard a crunching sound and spotted the truck spinning around.
"It slammed into a Mercedes, scratching up the whole side of it and then kept going around and around until that guy jumped in," he said.
Video that Longclaws shot of the unusual incident has gotten thousands of hits on Facebook.
Was a bad situation ...
Posted by Dale Longclaws on Sunday, September 6, 2015
