Billie Joan Power, 27, market clerk, rescued Ginger Lee Diffie, 3, while she was in a runaway truck, Bisbee, Arizona, May 19, 1967. Ginger Lee was in a canvas seat hanging from the backrest in the cab of a pickup truck when the vehicle began to move backward down the sloping parking area in front of a market. Mrs. Power noted the situation, ran from the market, and overtook the truck as it neared a four-lane highway. Leaping onto the left running board, she reached through the open window and pulled the hand brake, but it had no effect. The truck moved across the highway within 100 feet of an approaching automobile. Mrs. Power grasped the steering wheel and turned it in an effort to avoid a drainage apron at the side of the highway. The truck, moving at about 10 miles an hour, wobbled as two of its wheels passed over the apron. It continued backward down sloping ground between the highway and a parallel lane. The speed of the truck increased to between 15 and 20 m.p.h. as it headed toward an unattended van. With her upper body extended through the window opening of the left door, Mrs. Power pulled hard on the steering wheel. She succeeded in avoiding a direct collision, but as the truck swerved its left door struck a front fender of the van, and Mrs. Power’s lower body received the full impact. The truck spun around and stopped 15 feet from the van. Ginger Lee was unharmed. Mrs. Power, who had sustained compound fractures, was removed to a hospital. She was confined nine weeks and later recovered.
49687 – 5322
49687-5322