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The Unforeseen on Highway 15

An excellent lesson on simple physics took place on Highway 15 near Soux City, Iowa.

You don't need highschool science to know the lever effect: Anybody who's ever used a screwdriver to prise open the lid of a paint can has already made full use of it. Ever twirled a rope with a weight on the end? Now you know about flywheels and the like, how most of the energy ends up in the weighted end.

Perhaps Colton Navrkal should have paid more attention to the world around him. Alarmingly for a lad with such a poor grasp of the laws of motion he was behind the wheel of a pickup being used as the rear of a haphazard three-part vehicle.

Another truck took the front, and behind was a flatbed trailer. Upon that was an irrigation pipe - a long one. The unit was so long our unthinking friend's truck was attacked to the pipe's end to aid in steering from behind. What could possibly go wrong?

Of course, the swinging pipe's effect was magnified at the end and Colton lost control of his heavy truck, which picked up enough energy to careen across the road hard enough it broke free of the troublesome pipe before hitting an embankment with enough force to break the cab free from the chassis.

Despite being ejected from this disintegrating chloronic irrigation of the gene pool, he managed to survive to hopefully foresee the principals of Newton and Darwin next time he's on the wrong side of them.

https://norfolkdailynews.com/wjag/news/young-man-critically-injured-after-unusual-accident/article_6935c264-7b96-11ea-99cc-bbb89f40c663.html

Submitted on 02/09/2021

Submitted by: Iona Macdonald
Reference: Norfolk Daily News (URL too long) Feb 2021

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>> Moderator Scores <<

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
What the ever loving heck was he thinking participating in this! And it was his own steering that caused his pickup to have problems, to boot. Iona, in the future, if the URL is too long, you can put the URL in the story submission box. And thank you VERY much! (Other mods: https://www.newschannelnebraska.com/story/41996627/winside-youth-critically-injured-in-accident-near-pilger)


Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
So it sounds like thy jury rigged something akin to a hook and ladder fire truck with separate steering in the back? I just wish the articles included photos of the vehicle... Thanks, Iona!