I've mentioned before how odd things with weird similarities seem to pop up in the news at nearly the same time before. Today is no different. First we have the story of a man who has been arrested after leading police on yet another high-speed chase. This is not this man's first run-in with the cops. Michael Francis Wiley of New Port Richie, Florida has been arrested for his dangerous driving on at least two other occasions. So why is this all that unusual?
Wiley has no arms and is missing a leg as well.
Michael Francis Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He spent time in prison for kicking a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after an accident in 1996. He led police on a 120 mph chase in 1998.
On Tuesday, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, New Port Richey police Capt. Darryl Garman said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, Garman said.
Wiley was arrested the next day on charges of fleeing from police and habitually driving without a license. He also is awaiting trial on separate drug charges and traffic violations. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Defense attorney John Hooker said his client has paid off previous traffic fines that got his license suspended and tried to get a new driver's license, but he was rebuffed by state officials. Wiley's license has been revoked so many times it is now a felony to drive.
Believe it or not, that is the less bizarre story. A Spanish man has dug deep and actually been able to top Wiley. Police in the Northwestern area of Galicia pulled over a man hurtling down the expressway at a high rate of speed. Mind you, the man was not actually going so fast as to break the speed limit. So why did the police pull him over?
His wheelchair lacked the proper safety equipment to be on the expressway.
The 42-year-old man, who is tetraplegic, drove the specially-designed wheelchair which keeps him in a stretched position with the use of his chin and mouth, regional newspaper El Ideal Callego reproted.
He was stopped by police while traveling "at considerable speed" overnight Friday on the highway linking Ferrol with As Pontes in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia, it said.
A policewoman in the town of Naron in Galicia told AFP the man was not driving at excessive velocity, "but he nonetheless posed an obvious danger to traffic and to himself."
The kicker to the story: the man was on the expressway because he got lost while looking for a brothel.
