Chivalrous Openreach engineer to the rescue of returning holidaymakers

A motorist has praised an engineer from Openreach, BT’s local network business, for his “outstanding chivalry” when he escorted her to safety.

Jeanette Parker and a friend were driving home from Cardiff Airport after a holiday. They pulled into a lay-by in the Culverhouse Cross area after realising their car had a flat tyre.

“We were only inches away from passing traffic doing 70mph – a very dangerous situation,” says Jeanette. “We couldn’t raise the RAC and were becoming increasingly alarmed.”

Sean Lees came to their rescue. He’d pulled into the lay-by to use his phone when the women approached him for help.

Jeanette says: “He placed his van in a protective position with the lights flashing. He then tried to inflate the tyre with a foot pump.”

But the tyre immediately began to deflate. So he unloaded their luggage to retrieve the spare wheel, fitted it, and reloaded the boot.

“He then drove along behind us, protecting us further as we drove on the spare at 50mph,” she adds.

Jeanette took down the van’s registration and wrote thanking him for his actions. “He is a credit to Openreach,” she adds.

Sean, who works across south Wales and was on his way home to Treorchy at the time, says he only did what “99 out of 100 people would do”.

“I’d like to think someone would do the same for my mother if she was stuck in a lay-by,” he says. “I wouldn’t have left them stranded. They told me I’d saved their day, but I never expected them to record my registration number and contact BT.”