By Quinn Ford
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Jamarcus Applewhite was nearly finished with an eight-hour day hauling cars to Wisconsin early Thursday when he thought he popped a tire on the Bishop Ford Freeway just minutes from his destination.
Applewhite, 34, pulled his truck and trailer to the side of the road in Calumet City, then got out to inspect the damage.
“I felt a lot of shaking,” Applewhite said. “I got out and was looking down, checking the tires, when I hear an engine running ... and I look and see a truck up there.”
The pickup truck had gone up the ramp of Applewhite’s empty car carrier as the vehicles traveled along the highway. The pickup truck stopped feet from the cab.
As Applewhite stood by the trailer, looking up, the driver leaned out and asked, “Can we pull over?”
“I’m like, ‘We are pulled over,’” Applewhite said.
Calumet City, IL: Man drives pick-up truck onto car carrier at highway speed on I-94. #didnotseethatcoming #I94 #IDOT pic.twitter.com/T97yYRSJZW
— Captured News (@CapturedNews) February 5, 2015
Applewhite said he didn’t know how to get the driver and his truck off the carrier, so he called Illinois State Police.
“They all said they’d never seen anything like it in their entire career,” he said. “I still don’t believe it.
“Is this ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ or something?” Applewhite said. “Did he always want to do this as a child?”
The pickup truck driver, in his 40s, was cited for improper lane usage and failure to reduce speed. He was taken to Community Hospital in Munster, Ind., with minor injuries, state police said.
Applewhite said the man appeared “confused and dazed” but walked to an ambulance on his own.
Applewhite said he had been driving about 55 mph and didn’t see the truck approaching.
He said he has been driving trucks for four years but has been hauling cars for about 13 months.
When he got back to the truck yard Thursday morning, he said, none of the veterans could match his story.
“They said, ‘You take the cake,’” he said. “It was definitely a crazy night.”
Pickup Drives Onto Empty Car Carrier On Bishop Ford - http://t.co/MzVRBpoD7x pic.twitter.com/iufGzdnk6g
— WBBM Newsradio (@WBBMNewsradio) February 5, 2015
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