Not sure if everyone remembers this or not but Grandpa Thomas chased every fire truck and ambulance he heard or saw…loved the action I guess..
Anyway this was printed in the paper in Buena Park..not sure what date and year but guess you can figure out from his age.…Thought everyone would get a kick out of it.
L.B. Man Outruns Death in Halting Driverless Car
A 49 year-old Long Beach man ran a footrace with death Sunday in Buena Park. Police later
Credited him with possibly saving a life.
Nelson H. Thomas, owner o the Virnel Machine Shop in Paramount at 6 p.m. Sunday heard a crash in the street near where he was visiting his daughter, Mrs. Diane Pruitt, 8362 Whitaker Ave. Buena Park.
Thomas saw a sedan traveling slowly along the wrong side of the road, its driver slumped unconscious across the lap of his woman passenger.
He ran after the car, overtook it, reached in and turned off the ignition key. The car, in gear, came to a halt.
The unconscious driver, Edward Cecil Walkinson, 51, of 4260 Lakewood Blvd. a Douglas Aircraft Co. tool attendant, was taken from the car to Beach Community Hospital, where physicians pronounced him dead, victim of a heart attack.
His wife, Flossie, the passenger, physically handicapped since childhood by polio, had been helpless to control the car after he collapsed.
Motorcycle Office Gene Shields credited Thomas with preventing a possible second tragedy by halting the runaway car, which had veered back into traffic lanes after hitting a curb and a pole. Mrs. Watkinson escaped serious injury. She was treated for shock.
submitted by Susan G. Thomas (daughter #3)
