Good Samaritan Steers Family of 3 to Safety

Luis Puente doesn’t consider himself a hero.

And at 18, he really is just an ordinary guy who earns a living handing out promotional fliers on the sidewalk in front of an Oxnard Boulevard pawn shop.

That is what he was doing Wednesday morning when his ordinary life took a heroic turn.

Looking down the busy boulevard in front of Saul’s Loan & Jewelry, Puente saw a slow-moving black Honda Accord veer onto the sidewalk and head toward a row of shops.

The driver’s head was slumped to the side and the car was clearly out of control.

Puente ran toward the vehicle, reached inside the open driver’s side window and grabbed the steering wheel. He turned it sharply and pushed the gearshift into park.

He then hollered to a nearby business worker to call 911.

“I just hanged onto the car with one hand and started steering,” Puente said Thursday. “I saw her head go to the side. As soon as she went up on the curb, I knew she was going to hit one of the stores.”

The driver, Collette Robinson, 31, of Thousand Oaks, had suffered a seizure and passed out while heading home from a medical appointment with her two sons, ages 16 months and 9.

Although no one was injured, Oxnard Police Officer Kio Ebrahimzadeh praised Puente for his heroic effort, saying the family could have suffered serious injuries had he not intervened.

“If he hadn’t jumped into action, they could have easily gone into a building or gone back into traffic and got struck by another car,” he said Thursday. “He was able to get over there and reach through the window and stop the car.”

Robinson was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, and Ebrahimzadeh followed the ambulance with her two children. She was examined and sent home.

Robinson has no recollection of her near-collision. She said she later learned that her 9-year-old son Kyle tried to reach across her and grab the steering wheel, but got his feet caught in the back seat.

The boy later told her that “someone else came through the window.” But she never learned the man’s identity.

“I asked who had helped and they just said a good Samaritan,” Robinson said medical personnel told her.

Talking by phone a few hours prior to her Thanksgiving dinner, Robinson said this year’s holiday now has special meaning.

“I have a lot to be thankful for, definitely,” she said.

Standing outside his Port Hueneme home Thursday before joining his family for a holiday dinner, Puente played down his role.

But the soft-spoken teenager acknowledged that his Thanksgiving Day was filled with a sense of accomplishment.

“It feels good,” Puente said, “kind of a noble thing for somebody.”