CALGARY - Braving highway traffic to help save his mother and brother after a frightening car crash, a seven-year-old boy from Nelson, B.C., is now being hailed a hero.
Carter Cummings was in the back seat of his mom Christine Cummings' car with his 10-month-old brother Ryder Christensen on Monday morning when it went off the road along Hwy. 93 between Calgary and Radium and rolled down a 30-metre embankment.
Christine said the family was in the process of moving to Fort St. John from Nelson when the accident happened, about 230 km west of Calgary.
"I had no idea what happened," she said.
"When I woke up my foot was broken and my kids were crying in the back seat."
Since she couldn't move her foot after the crash fractured her ankle, she told Carter he had to kick out the doors and go to the road to get help.
"At first he said 'I can't, I can't,' " Christine said.
"He ran up to the road, he didn't have a shirt on in the car, he had a seat belt burn and he was trying to get people to stop."
Though several vehicles passed him, Carter was able to wave down Don Clowers, owner of Club Towing in Invermere, B.C., who pulled over in his truck.
"Carter was behind the guardrail, he's got traffic going by him at 100 km/h and he's only four or five feet out of the way of vehicles going by him," he said.
"He caught my attention right away -- a seven-year-old boy with no one else around standing there frantically, it was quite obvious there was a problem."
Carter told him he had been in an accident with his mom and brother and pointed out the car to Clowers, who phoned for help.
Now his brave efforts have now garnered him hero status in the eyes of his family and Clowers.
"I was so proud of him," Christine said.
"He saved us -- if it wasn't for him we would have been stuck in the car forever."
Clower said he was grateful nothing happened to Carter on the side of the road and agreed he is to be credited for his concern for his family.
"If there was a hero of the day, Carter was the hero," he said.
KATIE.SCHNEIDER@SUNMEDIA.CA
