Quick-thinking driver in dramatic motorway rescue

A quick-thinking motorist came to the rescue of another driver suffering a seizure behind the wheel on Auckland’s northern motorway yesterday..

Keegan Jones, 27, was driving to work shortly before 9am when he heard a “big, loud crash” and saw a car driving on the emergency shoulder on the left side of the road.

“He smashed through a big ‘works end’ sign and it sort of toppled over the top of his car,” Jones said.

The car was hitting signs and scraping along the wall.

“At first I thought he might just be, like, drunk or just mad at life and trying to get around the traffic.”

Traffic was bumper to bumper and moving about 10-20km/h, or “a fast walk”, Jones said. “I pulled up next to him . . . He just wasn’t there, I could tell something was going on.

“No one was pulling over. People were slowing down and looking at him and just driving off,” he said.

Jones pulled over and ran to the other man’s still-moving car to stop it. “I just boosted . . . I ripped his door open and slammed the handbrake up. It became clear to me that he was having a seizure.”

Jones stayed with the man and “kept him calm” until paramedics arrived. “He didn’t know what the hell was going on.” Jones said the man explained he started to get a headache and pulled over on to the shoulder before the seizure began. He had never had a seizure before.

Jones said it was lucky no other cars were hit. The car travelled about 500m after hitting the works end sign.

“At the time I didn’t really think too much of it . . . it hits home because my brother has seizures and stuff.

“I would have hoped someone would have done the same for him.”