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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/08/nwheel108.xml

Truck carries wheelchair user on 50mph ride

By Laura Clout and agencies
Last Updated: 12:44pm BST 08/06/2007

# Video: I didn't feel a bump

A truck driver travelled for several miles along a US highway after unwittingly picking up an extra passenger when a wheelchair became hooked onto the front of his cab.

Truck carries wheelchair on 50mph ride
Ben Carpenter spilt his drink during the ride

The handles of 21-year-old Ben Carpenter’s electric wheelchair became tangled in the grille of the lorry which had stopped briefly at a red light.

Horrified motorists alerted police as they watched the wheelchair hurtling along the two-lane highway in Michigan at speeds of up to 50mph.

One panicked caller told the emergency services: "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."

When officers finally pulled him over, the unnamed driver refused to believe what he was being told until he stepped down from his cab and saw for himself.
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Mr Carpenter, who has muscular dystrophy, was unharmed, but said afterwards he thought he might not make it through the ride.

"I was probably thinking that this is going to keep going and not stop anywhere," he told a local television station.

However, the only casualty of his trip was the contents of a drink he was holding when the truck picked him up.

His wheelchair escaped damage except for losing most of the rubber on its wheels.

"It’s a very bad story that ended very well," Mr Carpenter's father Donald said. "We’re just thrilled that he’s still around."