By-stander halts out-of-control truck at Granville fair

GRANVILLE – An unattended rolling pick-up truck in the middle of the Granville Fourth of July midway was halted by a by-stander before it would do any damage Thursday.

Jeff Richards, an advisor for the Granville Robotics Club, is credited with stepping in front of the vehicle before it could strike any one of a number of pedestrians walking through the Fourth of July midway.

Had it not been stopped, the mid-sized pick-up would have rolled into the middle of the intersection of East Broadway and Prospect Street, where several midway food stands are located and several people, big and small, were walking through.

The Fourth of July Celebration was in well in progress at the time of the incident, and no one was injured.

Police Chief Bill Caskey said that at approximately 4:50 p.m., a driver left the truck in neutral on North Prospect while dropping something off at the fair, parked about 150 feet north of East Broadway. The vehicle then began rolling toward the midway.

Caskey said Richards, who was in the Robotics Club booth at the northwest corner of the intersection, saw the vehicle pick up speed as it entered the intersection.

“The truck came rolling, so I got in front of it and pushed it to a stop,” Richards said. “It was not going fast. It surprised me more than anything.”

Caskey noted, however, that the truck was going fast enough to push Richards back a few steps before he was able to stop it.

Richards said he saw the driver of the truck standing nearby. “He’s there and his truck is moving, so I knew he wasn’t driving it,” he said.

“Had he not done so, it is probable that a pedestrian would have been struck,” Caskey said, agreeing that as the vehicle continued to move, it was picking up speed since there is a slight decline in Prospect Street leading into the Broadway intersection.

A half hour following the near-miss, Caskey awarded Richards a Special Commendation certificate “in recognition of his bravery and selfless act, which undoubtedly kept other Granville citizens from being harmed.”

“It is important in a day and age when people often only think of themselves to recognize those whose first thought is not for their own safety, but for the safety of others,” Caskey said.