Life in the Very Slow Lane

Hot on the heels of my most recent blog about the truck crash on the Pennsylvania rest area on-ramp, comes this tale of a fellow riding an electric wheelchair along the breakdown lane of I-95 in Connecticut.

There he was, motoring along the side of the freeway like he was out for a morning stroll through the park. Traffic cameras on a section of the Connecticut Turnpike in Fairfield caught the fellow cruising along at a walking pace while cars and trucks whizzed past him just a few feet away. Dressed in a blue parka and a sporty pair of sunglasses, he seemed oblivious to the traffic. At times, he's seen on the short traffic-cam shot, drifting dangerously close to the thin white line that separated him from worldwide fame as the planet's only living -- but probably not for long -- hood ornament.

The police caught up with the guy (not a difficult task, I'm sure) as he exited the freeway and issued him a summons. Traveling on a highway on an electric scooter or wheelchair is illegal in the Constitution State -- and I would hope everywhere else too.

Had the guy been hit, he'd have surely become a nominee for the 2011 Darwin awards. Apparently he survived the trip unscathed, save for the well-deserved ticket, but you have to ask, why? Why would you dream of venturing out onto a freeway in a wheelchair?

And equally importantly, you'd should be wondering what would have become of the motorist or trucker that might have launched him into the great beyond had he swerved onto the traveled portion of the highway. A good lawyer could have built a tidy retirement on that one.

Click here to see the evidence with your own eyes.