Drake Lane poses for a photograph with grandfather Hugh Cox.

Mostafa Al Zoubi, Gulf Today

US police honoured 10-year-old Drake Lane for driving a car safely after his grandfather, Hugh Cox, suffered a diabetic attack while driving on a busy highway, which prevented a fatal accident.

The boy saved his grandfather’s life when he went into a diabetic coma while driving at 110 kph on a Georgia highway.

Grandfather Hugh Cox told the "Good Morning America" programme that while he was driving along Interstate 75 near Resaca, Georgia, with his grandson Drake, he lost consciousness and went into a "diabetic coma."

He added: "The last thing I remember was the car swerving from the left lane to the right."

Drake then called his mother and sat on his grandfather’s lap, held the steering wheel, and pressed the car’s brakes to slow it down. He then moved it off the highway, called the emergency and the ambulance team gave the grandfather a dose of insulin and then took him to hospital for treatment.

“Drake's action was heroic and should be rewarded,” said Mitch Ralston, the sheriff of Gordon County, Georgia, when he heard about the incident the next morning. Ralston, his office staff, and emergency services personnel honoured Drake.