A quick-thinking teenager is being hailed as a hero after surveillance video captured him sprinting after a driverless car and jumping inside to save two elderly passengers from a potentially devastating crash.
Euan Lonnen, 18, was working as a shift supervisor at the Highland Farm Cafe in Dingwall, Scotland, when he noticed the vehicle beginning to roll across the parking lot on July 16. Two elderly women were sitting inside the car, but no one was behind the wheel.
Euan had been standing near the cafe entrance and chatting with a customer when she pointed out the moving vehicle.
“I was stood at the door with a customer and we were just having a nice little chat, because I quite like talking, and she looked out the door and said to me there’s a car and it looked like there was no one in the driver’s seat,” he told STV News.
As the car began picking up speed, Euan rushed across the parking lot and initially tried to steer it toward an overflow parking area, where it might come to a safer stop.
However, the driver had reportedly switched off the vehicle and taken the keys, causing the steering wheel to lock.
Realizing he could not control the car from the outside, Euan made a split-second decision.
“Something just told me to get into the car and put the handbrake on,” he said.
Surveillance footage showed the teenager racing alongside the moving car before climbing inside and pulling the emergency brake.
The car began skidding but finally stopped within roughly a centimeter — less than half an inch — of another parked vehicle.
“It was very, very close, and everyone was a bit shaken up,” Euan recalled.
Neither woman was injured, and both vehicles escaped without damage. The elderly passengers reportedly had not even had time to fasten their seat belts before the car started rolling.
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Cafe owners Kenneth and Lesley McKenzie were away on vacation when the frightening incident unfolded, but they later shared the dramatic footage on social media, where Euan’s bravery attracted thousands of likes and supportive comments.
Kenneth said the car stopped with only a “finger’s width” separating it from the vehicle ahead.
“The ladies who were in the car, neither of them had time to put their seatbelts on,” he told STV News. “So, he definitely did a really good job.”
The owners said Euan regularly goes out of his way to assist customers and praised him for remaining calm when a routine shift suddenly turned into a life-or-death emergency.
“We’re very proud of how Euan reacted to the car rolling away,” Kenneth said. “Euan is always looking for ways to look after our customers, and this is another example of his looking out for others.”
Thanks to the teenager’s lightning-fast response, two frightened passengers were able to walk away unharmed from an incident that could easily have ended in disaster.
He was guided by God.