Bad Ass Tween Steers Speeding Truck To Safety After Grandpa’s Heart Attack, No Biggie

Young kids who can pull it together in emergency situations put my scattered adult self to shame. But I’d happily be shamed by the very brave 12-year-old Miranda Bowman, who was able to steer an 80 MPH truck to safety following her grandfather’s heart attack. Can this kid ride with me every day of my life?

Associated Press reports that the New Jersey tween was being driven home by her 63-year-old grandfather following an afternoon of go-karting when he announced that he wasn’t feeling too great. He asked his granddaughter to then keep him aware behind the wheel by announcing things she saw on the road. But reportedly “a few seconds later,” the young girl’s grandfather suffered a heart attack with his foot wedged firmly on the accelerator. Grandpa died instantly, it seems. But the young girl only suffered a “30-second freak out,” as she called it, before attempting to call 911 only to get no service. That was when she crawled under the steering wheel — of a hurdling car — and realized that she needed to get the car to safety as quickly as possible. How many kids do you know who could have this sort inner narrative in a speeding car:

“I was looking around and thought, ‘Should I go into the corn field, should I keep going?'” she said. “Down the street was a red light and I saw woods. I said ‘I can’t hurt anybody else, I can only hurt myself,'” by putting the car into the trees.

She finally hit a few trees and eventually got out of the car through a broken area of the passenger side. The first phone call the kid then made was to her mother and grandmother, explaining the accident and that her “Pop-pop” had died. A fellow driver saw the car swerving and reportedly called 911. Miranda’s own mother praised her daughter’s actions with perhaps the highest compliment you can give your own kid. The mother stated to the press:

“I keep thinking to myself, ‘I don’t know if I could have watched that happen to him and reacted the way she did.'”

Miranda credits her quick thinking with having an EMT for a daddy along with playing close attention to grownups when they handle cars. And let us not forget many hours logged watching “Law & Order.” Still, a “30-second freak out” is only a fraction of what many adults would have perhaps experienced in that car.

(photo: Mark Winfrey/ Shutterstock)