The Herald Bulletin
CHESTERFIELD, Ind. — This has probably happened to everyone.
You take a drink. It goes down the “wrong pipe.” You cough, gasp for air. And recover. Life goes on. When that happened to Robert Spaeth after taking a sip of tea on the afternoon of Dec. 1, he happened to be driving north on Indiana 67 at 55 mph, with 13-year-old son Damon by his side.
When Spaeth began coughing violently, he didn’t recover; he fainted, slumped to his right, crossed the center line and veered into the path of an oncoming fire engine.
Damon instinctively reached over with his right hand and jerked the steering wheel of their 2007 Chevrolet Equinox to the right.
His quick action saved them both, family members said.
Instead of having a head-on crash, the car scraped down the side of the fire engine, kind of bounced off and headed off Ind. 67 to the right.
When he began to regain consciousness — Damon was yelling at him to hit the brakes — Robert did. Just that quickly it was over. Firefighters and paramedics surrounded the car and began treating Robert.
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