Mum meets hero who helped son in Littlehampton car horror

Beth Cumberland, 20, was driving home from work when she heard someone ‘screaming and crying’ in East Street.

Miss Cumberland, of Beaumont Park, said: “I was driving and all I could hear was someone screaming and crying. As I got out, I could see the boy’s leg was trapped under a car.”

Brandon Wright was walking home from school around 6pm on Tuesday, June 16, when a silver Hyundai pulled out of a driveway and trapped his kneecap under the wheel.

Miss Cumberland, who is a family outreach worker for the county council, stayed with Brandon while several other strangers banded together to help release the teenager from the car.

She said: “I sat with him, talked to him and kept him calm.

“He was really worried about his mum, so I asked for her name and rang her on the phone. She asked me to stay with him until she got there and I said I would.”

Aaron Adams was another driver who abandoned his car in the middle of the road to help Brandon.

The 24-year-old said: “I was picking my dad up from work and I heard a bang. A lad started to scream, then I saw a car on the opposite side of the road where a little boy was on the floor with it on top of him.

“I got out of my car, ran over and started pushing it out of his way, but it wouldn’t move.”

Aaron soon realised that the car was still in gear and asked the woman to place it in neutral. By this time, more people had joined Aaron to help move the car.

The Dorset Close resident said with the adrenalin pumping through his veins, the car never felt so light.

“It all happened so quickly,” he added.

In a touching gathering on Monday, Brandon and his mum, Charlotte Wright, met with Beth.

Mrs Wright, of Parkside Avenue, said the people who helped rescue Brandon deserved a medal: “All of those wonderful people that came to Brandon’s aid that day, I don’t know how I can thank them. They deserve a medal and I am forever indebted to them.”

Brandon has been advised by doctors to take two more weeks off school. The extent of damage to his leg is still uncertain.

Beth added: “It’s the type of thing I think anyone would do if you saw someone hurt.”

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