Strange but True: Runaway Wheelchair
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Michigan motorists report a young man for speeding down a highway - in a wheelchair! Strange but true story ideal for classroom use with young learners and students & teachers of English. Accompanied by learning activities First published in Ming Pao Daily 2008. More strange news stories here: http://strangenewsstories.eslreading.org
Transcript of Strange but True: Runaway Wheelchair
It happened like this. Twenty-one year old Ben from Paw Paw, Michigan, USA has muscular dystrophy. To get around his local town he uses a wheelchair.
One day last July, Ben was crossing a road at a junction. At the same time, a giant lorry was pulling out of a gas station.
The driver didn’t see Ben. His driver’s cab was very high up. Ben, of course, was very low down on the road. And the driver was not expecting to see a wheelchair.
Lorry Drives Away The lorry continued to pull out into the road. A moment later it bumped into the back of Ben’s wheelchair. The chair tipped forward. Somehow, the handles became stuck in the lorry’s radiator grill.
Still the driver did not notice. He only saw clear road ahead and put his foot down on the accelerator. The lorry pulled away – with Ben, in his wheelchair, stuck to the front.
The lorry continued down the highway. Soon it reached a speed of 50 MPH. But the driver still knew nothing about the man in the wheelchair. Ben wondered when the lorry was going to stop. The next town was 70 miles away.
A Joke?Meanwhile, cars travelling in the opposite
direction could see Ben in his wheelchair.
Many thought they were dreaming. Others phoned the police. At first the police thought it was a joke. But the calls about the wheelchair kept coming.
‘A truck just came by with a gentleman in a wheelchair on the front,’ a woman told the emergency operator. ‘He’s pushing him down the road.’
Luckily, a police car was travelling down the same highway in the opposite direction. The police car did a U-turn and finally managed to get the lorry to stop.
Spilled DrinkThe driver climbed down from his cab. When he saw Ben he nearly fainted.
Surprisingly, the young ‘passenger’ was quite relaxed. ‘Mr Carpenter spilled his can of cola,’ said the police officer. ‘And he lost his hat. But he wasn’t upset.’
And the wheelchair? It needed new tyres but was back on the road in a week.
“It was very scary,’ said Mr Carpenter, later. ‘I tried to call for help but nobody could hear me.’
Video interview with BenMore Learning Activities
Modern wheelchairs are pretty fast. Most can travel comfortably at 5mph. Some can go above 10mph. But an ordinary wheelchair travelling at 50 mph?
http://strangenewsstories.eslreading.org/
