Police officer, mail carrier team up to stop runaway pickup

A man's attempt to fix his pickup truck by tinkering with the engine led to a wild scene in Chesnee, South Carolina.

The man, 83-year-old Frederick Watkins, got his pickup started after working a little magic under the hood. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that his truck was already in reverse. The vehicle, which thankfully had its wheels turned, began spinning in circles in an empty lot.

Watkins was knocked over by the truck and was in danger of being run over. That's when mail carrier Rusty Tucker came on the scene.

"The first thing I noticed was a man laying in the parking lot, and he was bleeding pretty bad," Tucker told WYFF. Tucker pulled Watkins to safety and away from the circling truck.

Step one was done -- Watkins was safe. But how to stop the truck? Enter police officer Tim Walker, who told WYFF he tried to jump into the truck's cab but was knocked down. "It was going a lot faster than it looks," Walker told WYFF.

Unable to get into the driver's seat, Walker improvised, jumping into the bed of the pickup truck and then smashing out the back window with his baton. He then climbed through the broken window and stopped the engine.

Watkins was clearly grateful for the help. He told WYFF, "I could have been dead — there's no telling. They saved my life."

Tucker told WTOC, "I try to do more than just deliver the mail. I try to be a public servant in every way I can."

Walker speculated that if this had happened in a big city, "there would have been a lot of cell phone cameras out, instead of helping."

Watkins is recovering from his injuries at home and plans to sell his truck, according to WTOC.

Yesterday, Yahoo News reported on another good Samaritan who jumped into a runaway car with three children, stopping the vehicle before it collided with oncoming traffic.

Follow Mike Krumboltz on Twitter (@mikekrumboltz)