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Michigan Man in Wheelchair Pinned to Grille of Semitrailer for 4-Mile Ride
FOX News.com ^ | June 7, 2007 | Audrey Bright

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 ...


TOPICS: Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: scary; yikes
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To: Global2010

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.


21 posted on 06/08/2007 4:51:11 PM PDT by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (There once was a dream called, "Hippy Beat Down." The mere whisper of if caused cops to cry)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

LOL. You are truly a bastard. Thats why I like you. Don’t ever change you, you formerly big guy you. wink wink


22 posted on 06/08/2007 6:21:18 PM PDT by Horatio Gates (I remember when a pop-up blocker meant a cold shower.)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

oh. and Herm says hi


23 posted on 06/08/2007 6:25:33 PM PDT by Horatio Gates (I remember when a pop-up blocker meant a cold shower.)
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To: Horatio Gates

Tell Herm I’m getting him a lint brush for Xmas. I know he likes to look sharp.


24 posted on 06/08/2007 7:22:27 PM PDT by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (There once was a dream called, "Hippy Beat Down." The mere whisper of if caused cops to cry)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

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....


25 posted on 06/09/2007 12:13:02 AM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: Horatio Gates

;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.


26 posted on 06/09/2007 1:40:16 AM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: Roses0508

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.


27 posted on 06/09/2007 1:43:15 AM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

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.


28 posted on 06/09/2007 1:48:13 AM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

BR in lines is your friend.

MY EYES.

If I get the energy up I will re post your post with BR.


29 posted on 06/09/2007 1:50:18 AM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

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


30 posted on 06/09/2007 10:14:48 AM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: Lusis

LOL


31 posted on 06/09/2007 10:15:51 AM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: Global2010

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.


32 posted on 06/09/2007 10:19:59 AM PDT by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (There once was a dream called, "Hippy Beat Down." The mere whisper of if caused cops to cry)
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To: Roses0508

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.


33 posted on 06/09/2007 10:26:47 AM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: Global2010

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 :-)


34 posted on 06/09/2007 10:55:14 AM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

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.


35 posted on 06/09/2007 12:08:19 PM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

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.


36 posted on 06/09/2007 12:13:47 PM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

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.


37 posted on 06/09/2007 12:20:40 PM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: Global2010
;You have no right to call another Freeper a Bastard

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.

38 posted on 06/09/2007 12:53:02 PM PDT by Horatio Gates (I remember when a pop-up blocker meant a cold shower.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

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.


39 posted on 06/09/2007 1:02:46 PM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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To: Horatio Gates

Call him a M******F****** but code it dude.


40 posted on 06/09/2007 1:07:14 PM PDT by Global2010 ( We need a Road to the White House Ping List Please Help)
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