How I Saved Someone's Life (maybe)

There are two distinct times that I believe I had a positive influence on helping someone from serious injury or death. No, I did not administer some lifesaving maneuver or give somebody one of my precious body parts. It is much simpler than that.

Jeanette and I were driving across the overpass on Center Street in Provo. I looked over to the right of the road and there was a young boy that was on his knees on a skateboard propelling himself with his hands. He was headed right for the lane of traffic and the car to the right of us could not see the young person because of cars along the side of the road. I stopped in the middle of the road and leaned on the horn. The boy on the skateboard was grabbed by what I presume to be his sister and stopped him from going into the street in front of the car in the right lane. You could see the anxiety on the face of the girl. The little boy had fear in his eyes when he realized what he had just evaded. That was once.

Another time was when I had just left the hospital where Jeanette had given birth to Eric. We went as a family. As we were driving home we went down Wadsworth Boulevard. We were near the Belmar Mall. A young boy, probably in his early teens, was crossing the road leisurely while the light was green in his direction. He was still in the crosswalk when the light turn green for the cross traffic. I was sitting in a lane watching the event unroll. A 3/4 ton pickup gunned it as soon as the light turned green. I started honking immediately. The man finally noticed the boy and slammed on his brakes and then hit him hard enough to knock him to the ground. He did not run over him. The boy rose to his feet and was jumping around and yelling, "I'm going to die!". I left my car parked in the intersection and helped the boy to the side of the road and convinced him that he was not going to die. I finally persuaded him to sit on the curb and relax. A paramedic that saw what happened came to his aid. I left.

I know that had I not in both cases laid on my horn that both of these boys could have been hurt much worse. I used to visualize the boy on the skateboard being mortally wounded as he was run over by the car that did not know he was to emerge into the road from behind a parked car.