Wheelchair user hitches lift on front of lorry

'Quite a ride', admits Michigan man

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 8th June 2007 09:23 GMT

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A wheelchair user in Michigan admitted to enjoying "quite a ride" after being accidentally attached to the front grille of a lorry and taken on a 50mph white-knuckle jaunt down the state's Red Arrow Highway, the BBC reports.

The unnamed 21-year-old was passing in front of the truck as it left a petrol station in Paw Paw when his chair's handle bars "became tangled" in the grille. The driver set off for a local trucking company depot oblivious to his passenger, although passing motorists quickly advised police.

When the truck arrived at the depot, officers informed the driver that he had a disabled bloke attached to his vehicle, although he not unreasonably "refused to believe there was a man in a wheelchair stuck to the front of his truck until he saw it for himself".*

Police said the reluctant hitchhiker was none the worse for wear as a result of his ordeal, saying "it was quite a ride", but bemoaning the fact he'd spilled his soda. ®