William Coy Giddens, 40, dairy route salesman, saved R. Dewaine Martin, 12, schoolboy, from being struck by a truck, Dallas, Texas, March 10, 1953. Dewaine rode his bicycle across an asphalt roadway on which Giddens was approaching in his delivery truck. Steering to the center of the roadway, Giddens sounded his horn as a precaution, observing that Dewaine had cleared the path of the truck and was riding along the shoulder bordering the right traffic lane. When the truck traveling at a speed of 35 m.p.h. was 30 feet from Dewaine, he suddenly turned back onto the roadway. Again sounding his horn, Giddens made a full application of brakes and swerved to the opposite side of the road, safely passing Dewaine. The front wheels struck a rough part of the paving, and the truck skidded and overturned on its left side. Giddens was thrown to the floor of the cab by the impact and grasped the shaft of the steering wheel. One of his legs extended outside the cab and was pinned beneath the truck, which slid 65 feet on the road. Giddens’s leg was crushed, and he sustained other serious injuries and burns from battery acid draining from under the floorboards of the cab. He finally was freed by a tow-truck operator a half an hour later and was rushed to a hospital in a critical condition. He required emergency blood transfusions and was hospitalized four months, his leg being amputated. 3862-42804
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