Posted on 05/28/2014 3:30:55 PM PDT by Gamecock
MANNING, Ore. – A 19-year-old man who held his breath while driving through a tunnel on Highway 26 fainted and caused a three-vehicle crash Sunday afternoon, state police said.
Daniel J. Calhoon of Snohomish, Wash., was driving a Toyota Camry west of Manning when he fainted in a tunnel. His car crossed the center line and crashed head-on into an SUV, according to police.
Both vehicles crashed into the tunnel walls and a pickup truck crashed into the Camry.
Four people were injured. Police said none of the injuries was life-threatening.
Calhoon and his passenger, Bradley Meyring, were taken by ambulance to a Portland hospital.
The two people in the SUV were also taken to a hospital.
Doctor Sarah Winslow of Adventist Health says the impact of holding your breath while trying to drive at the same time, can be unpredictable.
“I'm sure the person that did this didn't know that they were gonna pass out," Dr. Winslow said. "They probably thought 'Oh, I'll just start breating again.' It's sad that they had so much effect from playing a game.”
Calhoon was cited for assault (4th degree), reckless driving and three counts of reckless endangering.
State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said Monday he's not sure why Calhoon was holding his breath, but some people hold their breaths in tunnels as part of a game or superstition.
The tunnel, called the Dennis L. Edwards Tunnel, was completed in 1940 and carries the highway through the Northern Oregon Coast Range mountains. It's 772 feet long, meaning that a car traveling at the posted speed limit of 55 mph would get through it in about 10 seconds.
Guy couldn’t hold his breath for 10 seconds?
Sounds like carpool tunnel syndrome.
Depends on how much smoke you have in your lungs, dear Dr.
groan
Even I can hold my breath for 10 secs LOL.
You need to exhale the pot smoke at some point, dude.
Darwin Award material?
We used to go this when we were kids.
Hold your breath going through tunnels.
Hold up your feet going over bridges.
The driver isn’t supposed to do it.
Oh.
Good point.
You don’t want to be breathing all those exhaust fumes inside the tunnel?
‘Eerre...twip, sniff, sniff. Send that down, Mkay?
When I was younger, we would hold our breath for a cemetery, not a tunnel.
Tunnels, IIRC, were a “close your eyes” situation.
People are just getting dumber and dumber, now they can’t breathe and drive at the same time.
Wrong. You’re supposed to honk your horn in a tunnel.
Would this be considered a “hold muh beer” moment?
Yergud
Wrong.
You’re supposed to crack the throttle in a tunnel.
:)
“Hold up your feet going over bridges.”.
Pickup our feet going over railroad tracks.
Possibly they made the game more interesting by hyperventilating first.
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