A 12-year-old schoolboy from Ebbw Vale has won a Pride of Britain Award after preventing a crash tragedy when his mother collapsed at the wheel of their car on a dual-carriageway in Herefordshire.
Nicola Crump was driving her son Zac Howells to a Christmas market in Warwickshire when she began to feel unwell at 60mph on the A40. She managed to slow the car and steer it half off the road onto a narrow verge before she passed out last December. However, with the automatic gearbox still in drive, her foot pressed on the accelerator and the car veered back out onto the dual-carriageway.
Quick-thinking Zac leaned across and grabbed the wheel, steering the car into the central reservation to bring it to a stop before turning off the engine and calling 999. He prevented a potentially devastating high-speed crash with other road users.
Calm under pressure
Remaining calm, he used the car's sat nav to pinpoint their location for the emergency handler, allowing police and paramedics to arrive quickly. In the recording of Zac's 999 call, the youngster can be heard saying: “Basically I’m driving on a motorway and my mum just fainted so I had to crash the car to stop. Her foot went down on the pedal and it started accelerating, so I had to crash into the barrier. I’m really scared.”
Nicola, who was unconscious for around seven minutes, was found to be suffering from extremely low blood pressure. She is awaiting further cardiology tests before she gets back behind the wheel.
A mother's gratitude
Nicola said: “It must have been really frightening for him. He said he was screaming my name as the car was getting faster. When he realised I wasn’t going to wake up he reached over and grabbed the steering wheel. He started bumping the car off the barrier to slow it down and then just locked the wheel right to crash and come to a stop. He just knew he had to do something.”
“When I woke up I could see the blue lights coming towards us and I was really confused. Zac was physically trembling but he kept saying, ‘I’m fine’. He was just worried about me. He literally saved our lives and who knows who else's lives. I just felt so guilty, I was watching him and he was telling me not to worry. It's playing on me how scared he must have felt, but he’s so humble. He thinks it was a normal thing to do.”
Award recognition
Zac is among a number of winners at The Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards with P&O Cruises. The awards will be televised on ITV1 and ITVX at 8pm on Thursday, October 22. Winners were chosen by the Pride of Britain judging panel from a shortlist drawn up after tens of thousands of public nominations were received.
Winners will be honoured at a star-studded awards dinner at Grosvenor House in London, hosted by Carol Vorderman MBE and Ashley Banjo MBE. The judges said: “Zac was astonishingly brave in an absolutely terrifying situation. His courage and quick thinking prevented what could have been a devastating accident.”
