Charles Lee Kemp, 24, funeral escort, rescued Glenn E. Matthews, 19, automobile assembler, from a runaway boxcar, Kansas City, Missouri, July 1, 1968. Matthews was driving over a railroad crossing when two runaway boxcars struck his automobile, wrecking it and injuring him. The automobile, with Matthews inside, became wedged against the corner of the lead boxcar and was dragged along the track, which sloped downward. Kemp witnessed the accident and, on his motorcycle, proceeded to another crossing ahead of the boxcars, which were moving at between 10 and 15 m.p.h. In that area the track was nearly level. Kemp was at the opposite side of the track from the wrecked automobile. When the lead boxcar reached him, he boarded it by means of a stirrup and a ladder located on the side of the car near the front end. Kemp ascended several rungs of the ladder and then moved to another ladder on the front end of the car, where the brake wheel was located. From his position on that ladder he turned the wheel in a succession of short jerks. His action applied brakes to the front wheels and, together with the drag of the automobile, stopped the boxcars after they had traveled 200 feet from where Kemp had boarded them. Matthews recovered from his injuries.
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