In a quite unbelievable twist of fate, a young man in a wheelchair got taken for a spin when his chair got logged in the grille of a truck and was pushed at top speed along a highway for many miles. Thankfully, he was unhurt
Ben Carpenter, 21 found himself in a situation he just couldn't get out of when his electric wheelchair became tangled up on the front of a semi-trailer. The man, gripped onto her chair for his life when he was carried down the highway at 50mph.
Ben said, after the speed ordeal,
"I was probably thinking that this is going to keep going and not stop anywhere, 50 or 60 miles somewhere."
Ben found himself very lucky to be quite unharmed after his dice with near death, yet his father, Donald was relieved his son was okay. He told Associated Press that Ben was trying to cross the road and was not seen from the driver of the truck who was sitting very high up in his cab.
Ben crossed the intersection at Paw Paw Wednesday west of Detroit and was only half way over when the light changed green and the truck moved off, just as Ben was passing the front of the cab.
The wheelchair became a tied on mascot for a while, while Ben closed his eyes and hoped for the best.
Naturally motorists passing the truck saw what had happened and quickly dialed 911 for help. Some of the driver managed to flag the truck down and got him to stop. The poor diver knew nothing about what, or who was attached to his front.
The chair was okay, yet the tyres were not.
A good advertisement for the makers of the wheelchair. At least they can now advertise the fact that it can go up to speeds of 50 miles per hour...
The manufacturers of the tyres however, will have to back to the drawing board....
