NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) - City police say quick thinking and self-sacrifice saved a one-vehicle accident from becoming much worse. 

New Philadelphia Police Captain Ty Norris says a pickup towing a large generator was approaching the South Broadway-Mill Avenue intersection Thursday at around 2:30 pm when a malfunction caused the trailer to disconnect. 

“It broke the safety chain. It then started to pass him in the curb lane of South Broadway headed southbound. He tried to use his truck to push it up over the curb to get this thing to stop. It just kept picking up speed,” he says.

Norris says the driver decided to try and overtake the trailer once again to try and stop it from reaching the intersection. 

“As soon as he went to pass it, the trailer had actually bounced off the curb directly in front of him, tipped over and stopped, and he essentially hit his own trailer,” he says.

Norris says the driver wasn’t injured and credits him for helping avoid involving more cars.

“This gentleman did everything in his power to keep that generator from entering that intersection, which that time of day it is one of the busiest intersections that we have in town. Had he not taken the actions that he took, we very well could have been looking at a much worse situation,” he says.

Norris says the driver won’t receive any citations, blaming the accident on a trailer malfunction. no other vehicles were involved in the incident. 

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