A driver from Balmedie has shared footage of the shocking moment he veered his HGV into the A90 roadside as he had a stroke behind the wheel.
Dad-of-three Gordon Jackson was travelling near the village when the distressing incident happened.
Now recovered, the 57-year-old has released a video of the incident on his TikTok account, where he goes by the name of Granite City Man.
The footage shows him steering into the crash barrier as he realises something is wrong, before motorists rush to help.
One was an off-duty nurse who can be seen reversing back along the busy A90 road.
Speaking to The Press and Journal from his home in the Aberdeenshire village, Mr Jackson said if it wasn’t for those who helped him that day, he might not have seen his family again.
“If it wasn’t for those three people I would not be here,” he said.
‘Suddenly my arm stopped working’
The incident happened on April 12 at around 7pm.
Mr Jackson – an experienced driver – explained that he had been working in Aberdeen that day, so wasn’t expecting a stressful shift.
“One of the vehicles I was taking for inspection was not ready until 6.45pm, so I went to pick it up,” he said.
“On the way back I was trying to get a sweetie out of a bag and my arm was just not working. I started to slow down, and I could not understand why I could not feel it.
“I kept thinking ‘why is my arm not working?'”
In the video, you can see Mr Jackson’s attempts to slow his truck down.
He continued: “I kept thinking, ‘there is something that is not right here’.
“You are not meant to pull over where I did, but I had to and crashed into the barrier.
“I was fair annoyed as it was a new lorry and I scratched it all the way along the side.
“I was glad that I had not picked up a trailer that same day, as the lorry would have been even longer.”
While the dashcam footage does not show Mr Jackson in person, it captures the minutes before and after he has a stroke.
It also captures the moment the strangers stopped and rushed to help him at the roadside.
A man, who is first on the scene, says: “Are you alright, pal?”
Then a nurse, who identifies herself as Terri, takes charge of the situation and calls for an ambulance.
She says: “Will we turn the engine off?”
Mr Jackson, who apparently has a droopy arm and eye, is slurring his speech.
He appears to be protesting that he is fine, but the nurse says he needs to be checked over by medics.
Mr Jackson says: “My arm is a bit numb.”
The nurse then speaks to the other people who stopped to help, saying “I wonder if he has taken a stroke?”
She then speaks to Mr Jackson, saying: “Relax your arm, it is alright.
“Let me see your eyes, can you open them up for me. Have you blacked out?”
A mission to track down life-saving strangers
Thankfully, Mr Jackson – who has a wife, Angela, a daughter and two sons – has made a full recovery.
He tells us that as soon as he was better, his mission was to find the people who helped him.
“My kids tracked them down on Facebook to say thank you,” he said.
“If it was not for Terri-Ann Stout, John Moir and Louise Sandison who came to my aid that night, I would not be here.
“Those three people were a God-send.”
Since the incident Mr Jackson has met up with Terri-Ann in an emotional meeting.
Mr Jackson said: “I gave her a big hug.”
HGV driver ‘lucky to be here’
Every day, Mr Jackson said he is getting stronger and is getting back to taking his dogs out for walks.
“The stroke happened on the Friday, and I got out of hospital on the Wednesday,” he said.
“I have 11 dogs and I tried to get out to walk them all on the Saturday, two at a time.
“I was exhausted. My wife gave me a row when she came home from work!”
Mr Jackson is already back at work, doing the job he loves, on a phased return.
After sharing his video he said he was “inundated” with messages from other HGV drivers who say they have had a similar experience.
He added: “I am very lucky to be here, and to have made such a good recovery.”
