Truck takes man and wheelchair for a ride

A 21-year-old man was taken on a wild ride Wednesday afternoon when the wheelchair he was in became attached to the grille of a semi-truck and was taken four miles down a highway at about 50 mph.

The man, muscular dystrophy sufferer Ben Carpenter, was not injured. The driver was unaware he was pushing the man, according to a news release from the Michigan State Police.



Authorities began receiving calls about 4 p.m. that the semi was travelling westbound on Red Arrow Highway, just outside of Paw Paw, with the wheelchair.

"You are not going to believe this, (but) there is a semi pushing a guy in a wheelchair on Red Arrow Highway," an unknown caller told the Michigan State Police.



Listen to the 911 calls here.

Police at first believed the calls were pranks. But when troopers responded to the Ralph Moyle Trucking Co. at 39269 Red Arrow Highway where the semi had come to a stop, they noticed the wheelchair with the man sitting in it, still attached.

"It was quite a ride," the man reportedly told police.

"The man spilled his soda pop, but he wasn't upset," Sgt. Kathy Morton of the Michigan State Police said.