Wheelchair bound man goes for ride on highway (stuck to a semi)

[superswamper]

PAW PAW, Mich. - A man was taken on a wild ride when his wheelchair became lodged in the grille of a semitrailer and was accidentally pushed down a highway for four miles at about 50 mph, authorities said.

The 21-year-old man, whose name was not released, was unharmed but was taken to a hospital as a precaution. He had been secured to his wheelchair by a seat belt.

“The man spilled his soda pop, but he wasn’t upset,” said Sgt. Kathy Morton of the Michigan State Police.

About 4 p.m. Wednesday, a caller told police dispatchers, “You are not going to believe this: There is a semi truck pushing a guy in a wheelchair on Red Arrow Highway,” state police said in a release.

Prank call?
Authorities initially wondered whether the report was a prank call until others called with similar reports.

Officers stopped the truck — wheelchair still attached — at a trucking company. The driver didn’t believe officers until he stepped from his cab and saw for himself.

“When he saw us, he was like, ’What’s going on?”’ Morton said.

An investigation revealed the man in the wheelchair had pulled in front of the truck at a gas station and it somehow became lodged by its handles to the front grille.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19088976?GT1=10056

[jeffy777]

F-ing handicappers think they own the side of the road or something. We should just start swerving at them and take them out one by one. First they take our parking spots, and now they're trying to take over our highways. Maybe we should just setup a concentration camp for people in wheelchairs. Take care of all of 'em at once!

[teletubby-warrior]

Originally Posted by jeffy777

F-ing handicappers think they own the side of the road or something. We should just start swerving at them and take them out one by one. First they take our parking spots, and now they're trying to take over our highways. Maybe we should just setup a concentration camp for people in wheelchairs. Take care of all of 'em at once!

Don't take it so personally.

[Blind_Io]

First they came for my good parking spot, and I said nothing....

[ESPNSTI]

Accident my ass, he was just trying to out-do this guy:
http://forums.finalgear.com/general-automotive/truck-shunts-smart-in-freak-incident-4361/

[Donington]

That's like something straight off the Lou and Andy sketch on little britain!

'I dun' like ittttt!!!'

[CraigB]

I wonder how the chair felt at 50 mph...

[swek]

Originally Posted by CraigB

I wonder how the chair felt at 50 mph...

I bet it was doing just fine. That guy was lucky he never got into a corner though since we all know American wheelchairs can't corner.

[Blind_Io]

Yeah, and German ones have complicated electronics that burst into flames every fortnight.

[Red_Bull]

Words can barely describe the awesomeness of this incident!

[fbc]

Talk about a bad-luck, good-luck story.

Wonder how many bugs he had stuck in his teeth?

[HondaF1]

I love the quote, "The man spilled his soda-pop, but he wasnt too upset".

- On closer examination, he had already finished his drink of soda, and had actually pissed himself!!

[swek]

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

Yeah, and German ones have complicated electronics that burst into flames every fortnight.

And I somehow expected a rebuttal involving Poland. I'm a bit disappointed here.

[Donington]

Yeah, and German ones have complicated electronics that have autopilots sending them off towards Poland...

[American TG Man]

He was lucky to be wearing his seatbelt. American wheelchairs don't support you in a turn.

Wild Wheelchair Ride
2005 Personal Account
(4 July 1995, somewhere in the USA) During my second year of residency in orthopedic surgery, a 35-year-old roofer was admitted to the hospital after falling from a roof. His boss had told him to tie himself off to prevent a fall, but he was an experienced roofer and knew that wouldn't happen. Nevertheless, he fell off the roof, fracturing his pelvis, his right femur, and his left tibia. An avoidable accident, but certainly not worthy of a Darwin Award. The patient underwent surgery, and was discharged from the hospital on July 4th after an uneventful three-day postoperative course.

So far so good.

The patient was back nine hours later, arriving by CARE flight, looking worse than he had the first time. He had torn the external fixator from one side of his pelvis, fractured his femur below the rod that had been used to fix it the first time, and fractured his tibia above the rod used to fix that, as well. And he hadn't been anywhere near a roof.

It turned out that he and his brother-in-law decided to go bar hopping to celebrate his recovery. Since he was stuck in a wheelchair, they figured the best way to get him from bar to bar was to duct tape his wheelchair to the bed of the pickup truck. The plan worked perfectly all evening, as they got more and more soused. If only they had also duct-taped the roofer to his wheelchair.

They were on their way home when his brother-in-law took a corner too fast. The roofer shot out from his wheelchair and landed on the street.

The patient was repaired, and he recovered fully, much to the annoyance of natural selection. I don't know if he ties himself off when roofing these days, but he hasn't been back to my hospital. I'm not sure how long he'll remain in the gene pool, though, and he certainly deserves an Honorable Mention.

[matt2000]

how cool would going at 50 in a chair have been though! you just don't feel the speed in a car like you would in that. like trolleys...

[Diligence]

The chair was an electric one, right? How come the motor didn't act like a dynamo - at 50mph you would have got a fair current off it! It could have blown up the battery... now THAT would not have been pretty

[Blind_Io]

As I mentioned earlier, it wasn't a German wheelchair.

[chaos386]

Originally Posted by Diligence

The chair was an electric one, right? How come the motor didn't act like a dynamo - at 50mph you would have got a fair current off it! It could have blown up the battery... now THAT would not have been pretty

And at 88 mph, he would have gone back in time.