Ten-year-old boy steers truck to safety

MONTGOMERY, AL -- A 10-year-old Alabama boy's story has gone viral. His quick thinking made all the difference in a scary roadway ordeal last week

Third-grader Christopher wheeler doesn't mind being called a hero. The 10-year-old was beyond brave when he was caught up in a highway nightmare.

"I saved people's lives," he told WSFA-TV.

Christopher was riding with his elderly neighbor on Interstate 65 when the 70-year-old driver started to have a diabetic episode and lose control. Special agent Eric Salvador with the Alabama Attorney General's office spotted the pickup truck weaving across lanes and tried to pull it over.

"It was running cars off the road," Salvador said. "It almost hit the center wall several times."

A trooper came to help pull the swerving car over. When the truck made its way to an exit, it headed into oncoming traffic.

"Put my foot on the brake and I got the steering wheel and pulled it over and put it in park," Christopher said. "I didn't want us to die!"

Authorities say Christopher probably saved some lives -- his own, the driver, and those in oncoming traffic.

Alabama Trooper Lee Walls said, "I've never seen anything like this before so yes, absolutely a hero."

The elderly man Christopher was riding with was taken to the hospital. He's expected to be OK.