On the morning of Oct. 25, Jamie Brown made his usual morning journey to work with no idea he would soon be regarded as a local teenager’s “guardian angel.” 

Evan Dearden and Olivia Posey had been traveling in Dearden’s Chevrolet Silverado on their way to school when Dearden suddenly lost visualization of the roadway. As Dearden made an attempt to stop the vehicle, his brakes locked and the vehicle flipped into a ditch near Meriwether Trail.

Brown said he was on his way to work when he noticed Dearden on the side of the road in distress, so he rushed to help.

“They ran off a cliff and they were trying to get out of the ditch,” Brown said. “It scared me at first. All I saw was a boy on the ground holding his hands up with his face covered in blood.  I didn’t see a vehicle so I thought someone had beat him up and threw him out on the side of the road.”

Dearden’s mother Amanda Rinehart said in one of the scariest moments of her life, she found comfort in knowing that Brown was there to offer help.

“I was in Montgomery when it happened, so I never got to arrive on the scene,” Rinehart said. “It was such a relief knowing that someone was there with my child. He [Brown] was a lifesaver because Life360 didn’t even alert me the wreck had happened. He was our guardian angel that day.”

According to Brown, it was a second instinct to stay with the teens until help arrived.

“They were beat up and cut up pretty good,” Brown said. “I turned my vehicle around and stayed there with them until the ambulance got there. They were hurt and scared and I just couldn’t leave them by themselves.”

Posey’s mother, Alisha Posey, said the overturned vehicle was out of sight, making it difficult for anyone to see that the teens were in distress, and expressed deep gratitude for Brown’s act of service.

“They [Dearden and Olivia Posey] climbed up the hill because you couldn’t see the truck at all from the road and he found them there,” Alisha said. “We are just so thankful he stopped with them and that they weren’t hurt any worse.”

After the wreck, Dearden was taken by ambulance to Baptist South and Posey was taken in her mother’s vehicle to Regional Medical Center in Greenville. Both were treated for minor injuries and are expected to make a full recovery.