Man Leaves Blobfest, Stops Runaway Tractor-Trailer

Blobfest has drawn a surfeit of accomplished guests to Phoenixville through the years; add Jim Fife to the list.

As told to the Morning Call, on the drive home from last weekend’s festival, the 33-year-old construction worker stopped a runaway tractor-trailer after its driver died of a sudden heart attack. Because of his actions, no one else was hurt.

It happened like this: on July 15 at 5 p.m., Fife, stuck with his girlfriend in standstill traffic a few miles south of the Northeast Extension's Allentown Service Plaza, saw a truck lazily drift onto the thoroughfare. When the trailer ground into the highway's cement divider without rousing the driver— who Fife could see slumped over in the cabin—he knew he had to do something. So he did it.

Fife pulled over, went on foot to the still moving truck, hopped in, and stopped the vehicle.

"I was afraid that this truck was going to hop along the barrier and it would eventually flip over," he told the paper. "I knew someone wasn't driving and it had to be stopped."

Read the full story here.