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Posted on 06/07/2007 2:12:49 PM PDT by Pete-R-Bilt
Man in wheelchair takes ride on semi's grill
Updated: June 7, 2007 02:30 PM MDT
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| Pictures are courtesy State Police Trooper Mark Kassuba |
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Listen to the 911 calls about the wheelchair attached to the semi truck
PAW PAW -- The Michigan State Police Paw Paw Post and Van Buren County Central Dispatch began receiving strange reports of a man in a wheelchair being pushed by a semi truck on Wednesday afternoon.
The truck collided with wheelchair as the vehicle was leaving a gas station and 22-year-old Ben Carpenter of Alamo was crossing the road. The wheelchair's handles became lodged in the front grill of the truck. The unwitting truck driver then proceeded to travel west on Red Arrow Highway at speeds of approximately 50 mph.
Police initially thought the report might have been a prank until they started receiving more reports of the situation.
The truck traveled for an estimated four miles unknowingly pushing the man in the wheelchair. The driver then pulled into the Ralph Moyle Trucking Company, which owned the truck, with wheelchair and Carpenter still attached. When troopers arrived, they discovered Carpenter in the wheelchair was unharmed and unfazed by the incident.
Police approached the driver and advised him of the man in the wheelchair. The driver did not believe them until he stepped out of the truck and saw Carpenter still sitting in the chair.
Carpenter said, "It was quite a ride."
One trooper on the scene said, "You could work another 90 years in law enforcement and never see something like this."
Everybody said they are just glad no one was injured.
One day after his harrowing ride, Carpenter is telling the story he will never forget. He says he wasn't convinced he was going to make it before the smoking tires on the motorized wheelchair finally gave out.
"I was probably thinking that this is going to keep going and not stop anywhere, 50 or 60 miles somewhere," he told 24 Hour News 8. "What if I end up in South Haven? I mean, I would have been dead way before that."
Bumper boy was unfazed by this?
What's bumper boy smoking?
You’d think that big ol’ forehead would have created a lot of aerodynamic drag....
That’s hilarious!
I have been both HORRIFIED and have laughed my a$$ off at this story! It is something you’d only see in a movie. My mind just would not register what I was seeing if I had witnessed this. I’m glad the guy was not hurt. He will have a GREAT story to tell for years to come!
Was that a truck or a COT the guy was hooked onto? :-)
no difference!
The boy definitely has a guardian angel, probably multiples. :)
Back in 1971, I was a deputy Sheriff working out of the Lennox station in L.A. and responded to a family disturbance call. The wife was upset that her disabled husband wheelchair bound, was at the local saloon buying drinks for people to push him and his chair to the top of a hill with their cars so he could “zoom down”, back to the bar for another round. Went to the bar in time to see him coming down the long steep hill. His form of a thrill.
I am very glad the man is safe. It can be funny as a result.
But imagine driving down the highway and looking into your rearview mirror and seeing a guy in a wheelchair gaining on you. Or...being passed on the highway by a guy in a wheelchair.
Talk about a double take! “Honey, I know I have said some crazy things in our marriage. But as God is my witness, there is a man in a wheelchair following us.”
Just Damn!
If THIS is the required initiation ... I would NOT want to be a Pepper.
He's lucky the gear boxes in the chair busted otherwise the truck would have killed him. What I can't figure out is how he is turned straight? A side impact even very low speed would tend more to push the chair over or slide it sideways. It's a miracle he lived to tell about though. One reason I don't like Conventional cabs on trucks because of limited front vision the first few feet. With a cab over you can literally see everything in front of you.
Make that a few 1000 years. WOW
I bet the first thing that he had to do when he got home was change his shorts.
What some truck drivers won’t do to park in the handicapped zone.
Have your speakers turned on:
No doubt - it’s a miacle he’s alive!
Oh for crying out loud.
Thanks for the ping, GLOCK!
Too bad I already SAW it, Pete! Thanks for NUTHIN’ I always say....
:)
:)
Oh, that caps it. I’m lookin for a candied pecan recipe.
TT, glocks looking for pecans...
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