Woman blacked out while driving on a highway—then a stranger did what no one dared to save her life

One morning, a man was driving along motorway A28 in the scenic town of Harderwijk (Gelderland, Netherlands). Looking out the side of his window, he noticed the car parallel to his moving erratically. Upon closer inspection, it seemed as though the woman was feeling sick and had fallen unconscious. Veering onto the grass before getting back up on the road, one couldn’t predict what was about to happen.

The man thought the guardrails sticking out from the side of the road would provide some impact to stop the car — but he was wrong. The car seemed to move despite it. Launching straight into oncoming traffic, the dashcam footage from the car tailing hers reveals the potential damage that would have occurred had this accident not been averted. How, though? How can one pilot another’s car to safety while it rolls at full speed with the driver blacked out?

Henry Temmermans, born in Nunspeet, was driving home on a Friday afternoon. He peeked in the other car’s window, but “what I saw was not good. It was clear that the lady was no longer conscious,” he told Omroep Gelderland. In anticipation, he pushed on the accelerator, hurrying to get close. The speed at which the car was rolling made him sure that the guardrails were going to prove useless. We can see the car coasting along these rails here:

As more time went by and the car kept moving full speed ahead, Temmermans had to come up with a quick and effective plan on the spot. He overtook the woman's car, drove ahead for a while, and right when it was approaching his tail end, he pushed on the brakes.

The car rammed into Temmermans' boot, stopping its escapade. 

The motorist, whose dashcam footage shows us the whole incident, pulls up behind the two vehicles as well. Temmermans quickly rushes out of his car, peeks into the one after his, and beckons for help. "He [the other motorist] called 112, and then we looked in the car together. I saw that she had vomited. I still felt a heartbeat in her neck, so that reassured me," Temmermans reported.

Both men waited patiently with the woman; it only took 10 minutes for emergency services to arrive at the scene. Temmermans called out to her, cajoling her to wake up. She eventually did. Upon being rushed to the hospital, it was found that she had broken 5 of her ribs in the accident. Her husband and daughter profusely thanked Temmermans for saving the lady's life. Although it remains unclear why she fell ill in the first place, that was not the most pressing thought in the moment.

Reacting to the public outpouring of love, Temmermans mentioned, "People say on social media that they are proud of me, call me a hero. But I don't see myself that way. You are obliged to help people in need. I did what I had to do." He had to get his car towed afterwards, since it wasn't in any condition to be driven. While he earned several accolades — as he rightfully should — several users expressed concern over their insurance.

Another user pointed out a superb safety feature that should be considered as a crucial aspect of modern cars:

You can watch the full video here: