A trucker’s quick thinking potentially saved the lives of multiple people on Monday after the truck’s gas pedal got stuck at an intersection.
The incident happened at around 11:00 a.m. on October 22nd in Lucasville, Ohio.
Ohio State Highway Patrol says that trucker Garrett Pendleton was traveling along State Route 104 near the State Route 348 and State Route 104 intersection when he realized that his gas pedal was stuck, sending the truck barreling towards the busy intersection.
Pendleton knew he had to take action quickly and began to exit left but soon realized he was heading straight for some construction workers, so he instead chose to steer his rig to the right, crashing into the side of a building formerly known as “Nickles Daycare.” The force of the impact brought the runaway big rig to a stop, debris from both the big rig and the building scattered across the grassy median, reported the Portsmouth Daily Times.
“I didn’t want to get to the intersection… There was a line of cars and I had to do something,” Pendleton explained.
An Ohio State Patrol spokesman says that Pendleton made a “wise decision” in avoiding the intersection and choosing to strike the building instead. He was uninjured in the incident.