Teen hero rescues tourists in carriage pulled by runaway horse.

Yikes. This happened in downtown Indianapolis on Sunday, but thanks to this kid's quick reaction nobody was seriously hurt -- though they were banged up a bit. The carriage driver got the worst of it:

http://newsgrinder.blogspot.com/2007/04/teen-hero-rescues-tourists-in-carriage.html

Maybe a gift certificate to Olive Garden... :-)

:applause:
His parents are probably having a heart attack. "You jumped out of a moving cab and did what?"

I probably would have hugged my daughter, praised her lavishly, then grounded her for a year.

lol no kidding!

Those so-called violent movies that the bible thumpers want us to ban may have been the inspiration for such courage. Alas, we will never know.

According to this report, the driver of the van that hit the carriage "faces several preliminary charges including felony possession of a controlled substance, misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence, public intoxication and operating a vehicle without a license."

I think we can all wave "bye-bye" to the van driver...

And congratulations to the teen! :thumbsup:

That kid rocks.

He'll probaby be on Letterman later this week. LOL

<snip>

He ran after the carriage as fast as he could, Basler said, but wasn't catching up. A taxi driver saw what was going on, slowed and told Basler to jump in. The cab sped up and passed the carriage, northbound on Illinois, and Basler jumped out of the cab and onto the carriage near Ohio Street.

That's when he realized the reins were dragging the ground. He wrapped a leg around something to secure himself and bent down to pick up the reins. Once he had them, he leaned back and began yelling "Whoa!" A motorist pulled alongside and also was yelling "Whoa!" to help out, he recalled.

The horse stopped so quickly the carriage slammed into it, which spooked the animal all over again, Basler said. He tried again to rein it in, and this time the horse gradually came to a stop near New York Street.
Basler, a Northeastside resident, said the women in the carriage were clearly shaken up by the wild ride.

<snip>

Experienced with horses? Not so much.

"When I was 15, I rode a horse once, and before I rode it, they trained me how to stop it," he said. "When I went through that training, I never thought it would come in handy, but it did."


Bill Basler the hero.


Captain - the poor horse that panicked

The kid dropped out of HS at 16, is trying to get a job and wants to go to college. Hope that someone or some entity with the $$$$ helps this kid out with a job and a scholarship!

And the idiot that caused all this - drunk and may also have been on Ambien which he didn't have a prescription for.

It's an amazing story. It would be great if this incident opens doors for the kid that'll better his future.

The Ambien info is news to me, too. That's a tricky med. I take it and have had some very bizarre episodes because of it -- but cutting the dose in half solved the problem, turning it into a very beneficial Rx, at least for me.

Heroic indeed!