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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."
I love dumb truckdriver tricks
BOINK!
With regenerative braking on that thing he could have gotten a free charge on the battery!
I couldn’t not ping you to something like this!
Wow!
He’s a Pepper!
I heard about this on the radio earlier, unbelievable! Thank goodness that guy wasn’t hurt.
He should have raised his hands so the driver could see them over the hood. Then again, he would have looked like a kid on a coaster to other motorists, just enjoying the thrill.
Did anyone ask what bugs taste like?
sheesh, I gotta get a wireless laptop for the truck...
WOW! Praise God he is safe! Lucky fella!
I think the guy hooked his chair on the grill on purpose.
WHEEEEEEE!!!
I beat you buy 30 seconds.
Un-believable bump.
Lucky he wasn’t in a manual wheelchair!
Motorcyclist looks for good Samaritan trucker
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Jeff Blessing's guardian angel drives an 18-wheeler.
On May 25, an unidentified trucker used his rig to shield the Dickinson man from traffic after he wiped out on his motorcycle in the northbound lanes of Interstate 45 near NASA Parkway.
"I was laying in the middle of the freeway taking a nap," said Blessing, referring to the 10:20 a.m. accident in which he struck a vehicle that had slowed or swerved after being hit by a loose tire from another vehicle.
Police said the trucker saw Blessing and maneuvered to block two lanes.
"I believe the trucker did save the guy's life," said Webster police officer Mark Rawls.
But the man, Rawls said, "wasn't directly involved, and he wasn't a witness to the accident so he was able to leave. I ... wasn't able to get his name before he left."
Now Blessing, 24, wants to find the trucker "so we can tell him how grateful we are. I'm just so thankful I got to come home again and see my wife and my little boys."
Blessing was on his way to work at an insurance firm near FM 290 and Loop 610 when the wreck occurred. He remembers only that he was flown to a hospital, and his wife, Dorothy, was called to let her know he wasn't seriously hurt.
Though his motorcycle was destroyed, Blessing was wearing a helmet and leather jacket, which helped limit his injuries to a concussion, sprained shoulders and "road rash."
Rawls said he talked to the trucker briefly: "I told him he really did a good deed because we definitely would have been working a fatality accident if he hadn't done what he did."
One super lucky mofo.
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