June 6: Benjamin Carpenter, of Kalamazoo, Mich., is shown in a wheelchair after becoming stuck to the grill of a truck near Paw Paw, Mich.
Posted on 06/07/2007 9:38:38 PM PDT by Kaslin
PAW PAW, Mich. — Why did the 21-year-old cross the road?
Benjamin Carpenter, 21, was crossing a Michigan highway in his wheelchair when he became stuck in a semitrailer's grille and pushed for miles before the unknowing driver was pulled over, police said on Thursday.
Carpenter escaped unharmed, saying, "It was quite a ride," police said.
Carpenter was attempting to cross on Wednesday when the light turned green and his wheelchair became hooked onto the front grille of the truck, which reached 50 mph during the 4-mile trip down Red Arrow Highway, Michigan State Police Trooper Michael Sinke said witnesses reported.
Carpenter was taken to a hospital as a precaution. He had been secured to his wheelchair by a seat belt.
Witnesses reported that the light turned green, so the truck took off, never seeing the wheelchair in front of him or the fact that it had attached to his front grill. When officers stopped the truck at a private business, Carpenter was in a calm state.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
June 6: Benjamin Carpenter, of Kalamazoo, Mich., is shown in a wheelchair after becoming stuck to the grill of a truck near Paw Paw, Mich.
Whoever manufactures that thing just got an incredible endorsement. Amazing.
I don’t know what color his pants were before the incident but they had to be brown after wards!
I’m calling B.S. on how he got stuck. I think he tried to kill himself and failed.
I think the whole thing might be a prank. Too crazy to be true.
Why would you say something like that? There's no indication of any such thing. The guy could've gotten seriously injured or, yes, even killed. Without a shred of evidence to support such a mean-spirited thought you go and post it. You're a sad little person.
I read a story about this earlier, minus picture. I figured after I saw a picture I’d understand how he possible could have gotten stuck on there. I still don’t get it. When crossing the street, one aims oneself perpendicular to the stopped traffic (those of us who walk do so because it makes sense, those who travel in wheelchairs do so because their chairs simply aren’t equipped to roll sideways). So how the heck did this guy manage to roll in front of the truck and get latched onto its grill at a 90 degree angle to the direction he had to have been rolling in ??? I can sorta kinda maybe see how ONE of the chair handles could have gotten into the grill, but it appears that BOTH are solidly wedged in there.
And it’s impressive that the guy in the wheelchair remained calm about all this. The truck driver must have nearly had a heart attack when he saw it!
Because I get paid to listen to stories for a living and try and figure how the person is lying to me.
I said I believed he was trying to kill himself and you think that, because he could have been "..seriously injured or, yes, even killed" that I'm wrong?
My belief is predicated on the picture I saw, showing how his chair was wedged into the grill of the rig.
If you were crossing a road in front of this rig you would most likely be hit from the side (even supposing that the driver never saw you) leaving a considerable bit of doubt as to how you ended up hit from rear, pushing both handles into the grill.
Crazy stuff happens all the time and it's even on purpose sometimes.
I'm not a "small" person because I see a story that looks fishy and throws out the possibility that the guy's story is a pile of crap.
Please see post 4,6, and 8.
Watch out for the bugs.
Wonder if it is a Quickie.
No pun King Vanity has chose Quickie WC for the last 20 plus years.
Turn on Fox and Friends, he and his dad will be on the program later this morning
I used to have a boss who always said “Let the horses think, they have bigger heads” when someone said “I think”.This applies to you as well.
Actually, if you give my Mom’s wheelchair a push on the side, it will rotate into the “going forward” alignment, i.e., spin on one wheel.
Now I know how Wile E Coyote was feeling coming out of the tunnel on the front of the truck after chasing the Roadrunner inside. Then again Roadrunner was driving the truck.
I think the guy at least owes the truck driver bus fare.
I’m going into re-hab. A poster on this thread showed me that Im a small sick person for having thought those evil thoughts about that poor, poor, little man and then actually putting them into words on this website.
See ya when I get out.
In about 10 minutes.
I do think it’s a bit fishy, but would really like to see a detailed explanation by investigators. It’s theoretically possible that it happened the way he says it did — just seems like it’s in the probability range of a first time golfer hitting a hole in one on his first tee-off. What COULD have happened is that when the truck first moved forward, it hit the side of the wheelchair, and since neither the side of the wheelchair nor the grill of the truck are perfectly straight, it could have simultaneously lifted one wheel off the ground while causing the chair to spin around 90 degrees on the other wheel. With those rear handles sticking out backwards the way they do, possibly some panic reactions from young Mr. Carpenter like pressing a foot to the ground or grabbing at the grill, could have provided further assistance to getting the improbably job done.
I sort of doubt it was a suicide attempt. But given how unusually calm the victim seems to have been, I wonder if he isn’t somewhat mentally impaired, and maybe stopped in front of the truck to admire the big shiny grill. If the truck driver had seen him approaching in a motorized wheelchair doing a decent clip in a straight line, and then looked away while waiting for the light to change, he might have reasonably assumed that the wheelchair had continued on its path and gotten well out of the way, even without actually seeing it emerge to the other side of the truck.
All very weird. Glad everyone’s okay. Suspect engineers at the company that designed the wheelchair are presently engaged in a very unusual special project.
If he wanted to commit suicide why would he use a cross walk.
I know many many WC bound people and one thing I know is the will to live and pride they take to be as independant as possible is awesome.
I hope the fellow gets a faster chair as they can go up to 15mph.
You are entitled to your opinion as that is what is great about FR.
I just happen to know alot of WC bound disabled folks with more spirit and zest for life then some non disabled folks.
And they don’t whine like other minorities about being hated due to there circumstances. Nor due they take life for granted, they are fighters.
Check out our sevicemen coming home missing limbs or other serious injuries, they fight like hell to live and be independant.
;His head rest is an otto boc brand and it has an steel rod that extends out in the back.
I have to cut KV’s down else it pokes me right in the breastbone when using the tilt in space feature of his chair.
We also have a carraig bar on the back to extend the handles to push his manual chair with more strength, comfort and endurance.
If this fellow had that feature his chair would not have got pinned in to the grill and he would not be here to tell about his big ride.
In no way was I making a generalized comment about Wheelchair bound individuals.
I see a crazy story like this and put my investigator hat on. My experience has been that unusual events are most often explained by common human conditions and emotions.
Greed, jealousy, love, love lost, addiction, etc... .
The most obvious explanation for this would be, normally, the trucker never saw him crossing in front of him and he gets squashed.
I found that hard to believe once I saw the angle at which his chair was pinned to the truck and what the story was behind the incident. They didn’t seem to match.
The next most obvious explanation would be a suicide attempt.
LOL. You are truly a bastard. Thats why I like you. Don’t ever change you, you formerly big guy you. wink wink
oh. and Herm says hi
Tell Herm I’m getting him a lint brush for Xmas. I know he likes to look sharp.
Come on over anytime to check out all our quickies.
It is a quirk nothing more.
The young man is not solicitating TMz for money is he?
Knowing my years of WC rigs and thinking he had a Quickie it saved his life.
Quickie WC use to give out buttons or sticker that said “I Love a Quickie” the squashed it because parents of young kids felt it was sending an indecent message
My son kept his button “Always Love a Quickie” the wheels turn on a dime....no sex message to him....
;You have no right to call another Freeper a Bastard he has a right to opinion.
I don’t agree with his opinion but I am willing to discuss it.
You are a bad boy for cursing out loud.
Either your mom has a junk chair or if is great it as we say “will spin on a dime”.
God Bless you for taking care of MOM.
A what makes you think a guy on wheels is a poor little man.
U may need to go to camp with a bunch of WC folks to learn some thing.
You wanna come over to our house we can educate you and you’d have fun but if wheels scare you like sticky food scares me might be to much to ask.
BR in lines is your friend.
MY EYES.
If I get the energy up I will re post your post with BR.
I do think it’s a bit fishy, but would really like to see a
detailed explanation by investigators. It’s theoretically
possible that it happened the way he says it did — just seems like
it’s in the probability range of a first time golfer hitting a hole
in one on his first tee-off. What COULD have happened is that when
the truck first moved forward, it hit the side of the wheelchair,
and since neither the side of the wheelchair nor the grill of the
truck are perfectly straight, it could have simultaneously lifted
one wheel off the ground while causing the chair to spin around
90 degrees on the other wheel. With those rear handles sticking
out backwards the way they do, possibly some panic reactions from
young Mr. Carpenter like pressing a foot to the ground or grabbing
at the grill, could have provided further assistance to getting the
improbably job done.
I sort of doubt it was a suicide
attempt. But given how unusually calm the victim seems to have
been, I wonder if he isn’t somewhat mentally impaired, and
maybe stopped in front of the truck to admire the big shiny
grill. If the truck driver had seen him approaching in a
motorized wheelchair doing a decent clip in a straight line,
and then looked away while waiting for the light to change, he might
have reasonably assumed that the wheelchair had continued on its
path and gotten well out of the way, even without actually seeing
it emerge to the other side of the truck.
All very weird. Glad everyone’s okay.
Suspect engineers at the
company that designed the
wheelchair are presently engaged
in a very unusual special project.
18 posted on 06/08/2007 9:32:21 AM PDT by GovernmentShrinke
LOL
I was quoting someone else and horatio gates is a good friend of mine who can call me a bastard any day of the week. Anyone who stops in to visit my mom in the hospital is good people.
Even if he works in “that” municipality.
It looks like a quickie and is motorized.
Without the motor a Quickie can spin on a dime, why we have used them the last 20 years.
The color he picked was a color that King Vanity wanted and I reminded him he would be living with it for the next decade so he picke (cost more) all American Flags for the color/design.
Another poster said something about the kid putting his foot to the ground, uh I don’t think so his legs look pretty fixed and I am guessing the lad is spina bifada.
I have a lot of exp in the WC world been into molding systems for 25yrs and with the most difficult case scenerio.
I am going to stick by the poster who stated divine intervention, this lad had a fleet of Angels cruising with him.
Notice the color of the chair in real life it is a blinding color and I think being an independant guy it is precisely why he chose it so cars would see him.
The poster claiming suicide attempt is totally clueless to a world he knows nothing about.
I really don’t want to bring up a certain name but I will Terri.
I could see a certain poster here on the let her die rah rah team.
It would have been better if I’d broken it into smaller paragraphs. But glad you liked enough to go to the trouble of reformatting :-)
Fine but spell B*****D so the anti Freepers won’t B***h.
Didn’t you get the memo that FR is now being blocked by some webmasters?
I love it here, don’t want to show up and be blocked because someone cusses and the PC police use it as excuse to ban this site from where I can go on the highway.
I am serious. No I will go eat cheese, chase a moose and then take a shower.
Your mom is in the hospital?
Does she need prayer?
Is she going to get out of the institution of florescant lights and shifts of people waking her every two hrs. soon?
What a bad place to be unless you are in ICU (top of the line care ward).
Can she come home and have family do her care?
We have done a lot of time.... we prefer home care.
Love staff we have worked with but being a guest is not fun at the hospital.
Hope she gets well soon.
Stick to investigating other things.
I am the known as the worste murder ploy armchair sluethe.
But you are way out of your league on this one.
Not even theernformerlyknownasbig? I think you're possibly joking around (is that a smiley preface?) but for the record that "bastard" is personally known to me and good bud. He's a good guy as far as bastar....oops, but don't tell him I said that.
LOL I can some what format HTML and post pics but my grammer will never improve.
White girl black school, ghetto ran for my life and did not pay attention in class due to trying out how to get to the next class without getting the crap beat out of me for being a whitey.
My best freind then was a gal who was a black muslim and she had to wear the muslim uniform.
But the ghetto girls loved to kick my a** and I was not a quiet type.
They use to beat the crap out of a girl with Cerebral Palsy and I would jump in and go hormonal so trying to defend someone who could not fight back I got my a** kicke alot.
Hence didn’t pay attention in class. War zone.
Call him a M******F****** but code it dude.
I wouldn’t consider that particular name for him but I do see the need for “coding” it if I was to use it. Bastard oth, isn’t something to get worked up over especially in the context it was used.
It is in this wierd anti free speech world we live in.
B***h, gay and rainbows use to be acceptable words too.
Not any more and literally folks are being blocked to access here under the guise of “pornographic” or “indecent” sites.
FR is under attack.
This being semi home bound has been my place since 1998 now more than ever homebound and I don’t want to lose this “social” arena.
How would you feel if all you had was Dummie Underground.
You learned enough English to make yourself understood. Keeping yourself alive and doing stuff like protecting the girl with cerebral palsy who kept getting beaten up are more important than grammar.
And something tells me that in that sort of school, the grammar teaching may have been so deficient that it probably would have done you much good to pay attention. Many years ago I volunteered as a teacher’s aide in a kindergarten class in a Washington DC public school. Teacher had a heart of gold and was doing the best she could given that she was a graduate of the DC public schools and some typically horrendous teachers college. But alas, she couldn’t spell some of the words that the kindergarteners were supposed to be learning.
Mom was in the hospital a couple of years ago. Now I see why you say your the worst armchair investigator. Haha
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