Jerry Seinfeld is not only lucky to be alive after his car accident in the Hamptons this past weekend, he is also apparently … a hero? "I don't think there is any question that his actions that night saved numerous lives including his own," East Hampton police chief Todd "Starfucker" Sarris told the Post today. "I don't think there is any question that he is a hero." Wha? We must have read that story wrong then, because it sounded to us like Seinfeld got in an accident when the brakes on his vintage car rather unsurprisingly failed. Let's recap:

Seinfeld was driving a vintage car, a 1967 model of the notoriously difficult Fiat variety when — surprise — his brakes failed. Rather than driving straight into traffic and dying in fiery wreck, he saved his own life by jerking the wheel to the side. The car flipped over, but he emerged happily uninjured. Then, according to the Post today, "as others righted the car, Seinfeld was driven home by his publicist who had been following in a car behind him."

So … basically, he left the scene of an accident which he himself caused when driving a vintage car that he didn't even really need to be driving in the first place since his publicist was behind him, and then failed to stick around to help clean up the mess he made on the highway? We're not sure that's heroic, exactly, but it sure is something.

Seinfeld's 'Flip' Response Saved Lives: Cops [NYP]