UPS driver saves teen from collapsed truck

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Updated Apr 28, 2016

So many of these stories end in tragedy, but not this one—thanks to the quick thinking of a UPS driver.

Seventeen-year-old Cameron King had been working under his pickup in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Penasquitos last week when it slipped off the jack and landed on his head, pinning him to the road.

“That’s when the UPS guy drove down the street because he heard my screams,” King told fox5sandiego.com. “He held me with the jack.”

In an interview released today by Fox 5 San Diego, UPS driver Brian Philips explained that he got under the truck so that he could reposition the jack and lift the pickup off King. Neighbors had also run to King’s aid.

King’s mother, Kimberly King, was able to locate Philips later and get him to drive by their house so that she and her son could thank him.

“You looked like you were hurting pretty bad there,” Philips told King shortly after giving the grateful teen, a local football player, a hug and a football.

“That was the scariest moment that’s ever happened to me,” King replied to Philips.

The meeting, along with eye-witness interviews, was recorded by King 5 and is posted below.

King’s mother, Kimberly King, was a little tongue-tied when she approached Philips to thank him.

“What do you say to a guy who just saved your kid’s life?” she asked Philips.

Philips quipped, “I don’t know. What can UPS do for you?”

Philips, King’s mother and others standing nearby during the interview shared a good laugh.

Last Wednesday, after jacking up his truck, King said that he removed the left-rear tire and went under the vehicle. Moments later the pickup slipped off the jack and landed on top of him. Firefighters who had arrived on scene to help King shortly after he was rescued, had a chance to see the video of the truck’s collapse and are surprised that King survived.

“He’s a tough kid,” a Rancho Penasquitos firefighter said.

Hard Working Trucks has reached out to UPS for more information about the incident.

King said the terrifying event has given him a new outlook on life.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to be at school right now and to see all of your faces,” King said. “I get to say that I am the luckiest man alive.”