Detroit Free Press
Wheelchair skids to fame
Trapped rider thought he would die stuck to semi's grille at 50 m.p.h.
June 8, 2007
BY AMBER HUNT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Ben Carpenter is used to being on wheels. Just not in this way.
Carpenter, 21, who was pushed for 2 miles down a two-lane highway when his wheelchair got stuck in the grille of a semi, said he was helpless. He just had to ride it out.
"I tried to yell for help but no one could hear me," he said Thursday.
The truck driver had no idea someone was stuck in his grille Wednesday afternoon until he turned into the lot of his business and was stopped by an undercover police officer who had spotted the incident on the highway.
The truck, Carpenter said, was going 50 m.p.h. Luckily, he always straps himself into the chair, so he felt secure that he wouldn't fall out. But he was pretty sure he was going to die.
"I didn't know how far he was going," he said of the driver, whose name was not released Thursday. "I think people were looking at me."
They were indeed.
Police got several 911 calls around 3:30 p.m. from drivers who spotted the strange scene on the Red Arrow Highway, a main drag through Paw Paw.
In a perplexed and deliberate voice, one caller said: "A semi-truck just came by and he does not know it, but he has a gentleman on the front of his truck that's in a wheelchair, and he's pushing him down the road."
Carpenter, who has muscular dystrophy that put him in a wheelchair 7 1/2 years ago, had been out with an aide taking a ride along a wheelchair-accessible park in Paw Paw. He crossed the Red Arrow legally, his father, Don, said, but the light turned green before he got across.
The 18-wheel semi slowly took off, nudging the wheelchair parallel to the grille, where the chair's handgrips slipped between the slats and got stuck. Its wheels dragged along the highway, leaving skid marks.
John Moyle, co-owner of the trucking company, Ralph Moyle Inc., said the driver sat too high in his rig to see Carpenter crossing the street.
"He was shaken, obviously," Moyle said. He wouldn't identify the trucker, who has worked for the company for several years. Ralph Moyle owners are to meet today to discuss the incident.
Carpenter's mother, Joyce, a nurse at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, had a jolt when she heard the news.
"I was at work when it happened," she said. "A coworker came to the door and said, 'You have to come here right now.' When we got in the hallway, she told me my son had been hit by a semi."
The next words were that Ben was OK, but his mother already was panicked. "Just hearing your son's been hit by a semi ... that's enough," she said.
Ben was taken to Bronson after the ride to be checked out. He wasn't even scratched.
Don Carpenter couldn't help but laugh -- after he learned his son was OK, of course.
"What else can you do?" he asked. "It's hard to imagine this happening and to have it come out alright."
Ben's aide wasn't as amused. She breathlessly screamed for help to a 911 dispatcher on her cell phone. Don said she was relieved later but shaken.
Not only did Ben survive, but so did his wheelchair. The foam covers on the hand grips are worn in places, a bracket is askew, and there's a dent in an arm rest, but the black-and-yellow motorized chair, which weighs 500 pounds when Ben is in it, is otherwise OK.
That is, except for the tires. They were replaced Thursday in time for Ben to keep his plans to go to a muscular dystrophy camp Sunday in Augusta.
As expected, he has become somewhat of an international celebrity. The family was interviewed by dozens of news media outlets and fielded calls from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and even a newspaper in Norway.
Ben usually is shy, but his parents said he's been surprisingly open with reporters.
"It's kind of neat," he said. "Maybe the president will call. That'd be cool."
By Thursday afternoon, the family needed a break from the attention. They left home, away from the ringing telephone and reporters' knocks at the door.
Plus, Don said, Ben wanted to check out those skid marks.
"He thinks they're pretty neat."
Contact AMBER HUNT at 313-222-2708 or [Email]alhunt@freepress.com.[/Email]
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