A tanker went off the road, hit a utility pole, a tree, and then 23 new cars sitting in a dealership parking lot – and the driver claims it’s all because a sip of soda went down the wrong pipe.
According to police, 58 year-old Thomas Young was drinking a can of Dr. Pepper when he choked on a sip, causing him to start coughing uncontrollably. The coughing was so bad that he couldn’t see where he was going and his tanker hauling milk left the road.
His truck veered across the oncoming lane, jumped the curb and went down an embankment before colliding with a utility pole and then a tree. From there the truck went another 550 feet over a grassy area before it careened into the lot of a car dealership, damaging 23 brand new cars and pushing one of them through a large glass wall and into the showroom.
Thankfully, the accident happened on a Sunday when the dealership was closed so no one was around to get injured.
A nearby woman rushed to help Young and see if he was okay. She later told police what happened.
“He said that he was taking a drink, and he choked on whatever it was,” she said. “It went down the wrong pipe, and he was choking and he said he was coughing so hard he literally couldn’t see anything and just lost control and hit the pole.”
An inspection by the state police noted that there were no mechanical issues with the truck and that there appeared to have been no attempt by Young to apply the brakes.
Young has been cited for careless driving.
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Source: cbs, kcci, wkbn, sharonherald
Wow… can’t say anything on this one. It could happen to any of us but, it sucks to be him. I’m just glad he didn’t kill anyone including himself. The man upstairs was watching on that one.
Doesn’t make any sense to me. My first reaction would be to apply the brakes and stay straight until I stopped. I may have gotten into an accident but I don’t see me going completely to the wrong side of the road then smashing into all those cars. I don’t buy this story. He fell asleep let’s face it.
The guy is a total idiot and shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a truck, if you ask me. I can understand the chocking part but it’s the last sentence, in the article, that makes me feel he doesn’t belong in a truck, “there were no mechanical issues with the truck and that there appeared to have been no attempt by Young to apply the brakes.”
It happened to me so bad I passed out and ended up in the median. Luckily nobody else close by. It was a precursor to serious and almost fatal lung problems.
Next thing you know, They won’t allow you to drink and drive.
you’re not supposed to ingest anything while driving anyway.We all do it and one day this is what is going to happen. Just like speeding,sooner or later it will come and bite you in the rear but till it does we got to keep them wheels rolling.
were is it written you can’t ingest anything? that’s incorrect!! you would have a bunch of dehydrated drivers passing out from dehydration and they would pass another silly law stating drivers must take a 15 minute break every hour and drink 8 ounces of water or whatever to stop this epidemic.
tho I can say this and similar things have happened to me and I felt I was lucky to get over and stopped safely.
Almost as bad, I like to drive with the window open. Something flew into my left eye (debris, dust, pollen,) and my reaction was so quick both eyes started tearing up.
I had the sense to pull over immediately, within a few seconds I was temporarily blinded.
My right eye got better within a minute but my left eye I needed to flush with water and it bugged me for a few hours. I had to drive with one eye closed because my left eye didn’t want to focus.
Remember kids, in an emergency don’t be afraid to come to a complete stop right where you are!
I was heading west bound on the 80 in Wyoming one time & I started coughing so bad I actually went blind in both eyes for what seemed like 10-15 seconds, but I’m sure it was more like 3-4 seconds & I was so scared. I was going about 65-70 coming off one of the many fun hills on the western side of Wyoming. Luckily I was able to keep it in the lane with no accident. I was a very terrifying experience.