Louis Joseph Gallant saved John W. Waite from a runaway truck, New Campbellton, Nova Scotia, January 14, 1984. Waite, 28, was driving an 85,000-pound tractor-trailer down Kelly Mountain when the truck’s brakes failed. Gallant, 29, truck driver, was driving his tractor-trailer down the same road ahead of Waite when Waite radioed him of his plight. Gallant instructed Waite to drive his truck into the back of his own so that he could attempt to stop them both. Gallant then increased his speed to about 50 m.p.h. on the twisting stretch of road on which he normally drove at 15. Near the bottom of the hill, where the highway took a 180-degree turn, Waite’s truck, then travelling at about 60 m.p.h., collided with Gallant’s. Gallant applied his brakes and, over the course of a quarter-mile, brought both trucks to a halt several hundred feet short of the turn. Waite sustained a minor chest injury from which he recovered.
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