Firegeezer has the story today of a man in Kansas City, Missouri whose vehicle became one with Engine 8 because his head was buried in his GPS.
I will let you be the judge of what Andy Edmonds had his head buried in. Edmonds didn’t get hit by the rockslide that blocked Highway 129 in Blount County, Tennessee. He hit the rocks.
People are always telling me how the media creates stories (including a comment that somehow we created the recent situation in Rockville, Maryland). In this case, I guess you can say it is partially true. Edmonds admits he was distracted by the TV camera and then things went terribly wrong.
That last phrase is one of those awful TV reporter clichés (the British version is “horribly wrong”). If you ever catch me saying that on TV just throw a shoe or something at me and tell me to go away.
Emily Cyr at wusa9.com found this story and since it wasn’t directly fire or EMS related was hesitant to put it in the STATter911.com video player (up and to the right). I told her it’s videos like this one that remind the people who read the blog that there will always be a need for what they do.
Here are more details about the story from WBIR-TV:
A Sunday morning rock slide in Blount County has shut down all lanes of a portion of Highway 129 known as “The Dragon.”
According to Yvette Martinez with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the south and northbound lanes of U.S. 129/State Route 115 are closed.
The rock slide occurred two miles south of Chilhowee Dam.
Martinez said several large boulders fell from the mountainside around 9:30 a.m.
10 News photojournalist Jerry Owens was called to the rock slide just after it occurred. While he was shooting video of the slide, a car coming around a curve became distracted and did not notice the debris covering the roadway until it was too late.
“I didn’t even notice that rock fall right there,” said driver Andy Edmonds. “I’m lucky to have hit it in a way to not get too hurt. My dog here, she probably took a pretty good hit, but she’s alright.”
Edmonds and his dog Maybelle were not injured.
