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Man Drives 35 Miles w/ Wife Clinging to Hood!

M

MacVixen

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 26, 2009
385
0
Santa Cruz, CA
I have to admit, when I first saw this story in the paper I didn't think it could possibly be true.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_17520593

From the story:
MANTECA -- A Manteca man remains behind bars four days after driving 35 miles on a freeway with his wife clinging to a windshield wiper blade on the hood of their minivan, police said Wednesday.

Christopher Michael Carroll, 36, was being held without bail at the San Joaquin County Jail on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and domestic assault, according to sheriff's department records.

Carroll got into the family's minivan around 12:30 a.m. Saturday after he and his wife had an argument at their Manteca home, local police said.

"She kind of goes with the van to try to stop him, gets up on the hood and is hanging on to the wiper blade," said police spokesman Rex Osborn. "She obviously didn't think he would keep driving."

Carroll sped through Manteca, got on a freeway and didn't pull over until he reached Pleasanton, about 35 miles away, Osborn said.

Two witnesses called 911 from the road to report it, Osborn said. One of the callers followed Carroll all the way to Pleasanton and told police his speed reached 100 miles per hour.

Eventually, Carroll slowed down the vehicle and his wife "was able to roll off," Osborn said. The driver following the vehicle transported the woman to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for hypothermia.
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So, anyone who is familiar with Northern California knows that the drive from Manteca to Pleasanton is from Highway 120 to I-205 to I-580. Not to mention the fact this is OVER the Altamont Pass - a higher elevation that can get extremely windy (lots of windmills on the hills as a matter of fact). So my initial reaction to this was :eek: "This cannot possibly be true!"

And now 2 days later, the follow up story, where he has admitted that it did, in fact, happen http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_17532406:

A man accused of driving more than 40 miles at speeds of up to 100 mph with his wife clinging to the hood of their minivan told a San Joaquin County Superior Court judge Thursday that he is guilty as charged.

"I did that to my wife," he said. "I did all of that to my wife. I'm guilty." Christopher Michael Carroll, 36, was charged Thursday afternoon with attempted murder, corporal injury to a spouse and assault with a deadly weapon in the bizarre case that has captured worldwide attention.

Carroll also told the court that he wants to be his own attorney. Judge Ronald Northup did not accept his plea, however. The case has been transferred to the Stockton courthouse and Carroll will appear there Tuesday for further arraignment
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So Bizarre!

First of all I truly can't believe that she managed to hang on the entire time - clinging to a windshield wiper blade! Superhuman strength on her part? Second, he was allegedly going up to 100 MPH at times, which makes it even more incredible that she never fell off it had to been at least a 30 minute drive, if not longer!
 
So, some crazy bitch climbs on the hood of your car to keep you from leaving and you just have to put up with that?

I'm sorry, I'm not saying the guy should get a free pass, but at some point her own idiocy has to bear some of the blame for this.
 
I heard this on the radio yesterday morning when I was listening to the Stupid News segment on Ace & TJ.

Stupid, but funny.
 
Tomorrow said:
So, some crazy bitch climbs on the hood of your car to keep you from leaving and you just have to put up with that?

I'm sorry, I'm not saying the guy should get a free pass, but at some point her own idiocy has to bear some of the blame for this.
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You can't be serious.
 
Tomorrow said:
So, some crazy bitch climbs on the hood of your car to keep you from leaving and you just have to put up with that?

I'm sorry, I'm not saying the guy should get a free pass, but at some point her own idiocy has to bear some of the blame for this.
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Yeah, I guess you do gotta "put up with that" unless you plan on killing the woman :confused:

errr, maybe I should have included this piece of the article:

The wild ride happened several days after Carroll was arrested for being under the influence of a controlled substance, Osborn said.

Police received a phone call on Feb. 23 from a witness who reported that Carroll had climbed into a 6-foot-deep trash bin in Manteca and was threatening to drown himself in the five inches of water that had collected at the bottom, Osborn said.

"We went out there and talked to him for about an hour and he was obviously on some kind of drugs," Osborn said
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The dude has issues, and took off with his wife clinging to the hood of his car. If she tried to roll off she may could have been killed! But hey, let's go ahead and blame the victime here.
 
MacVixen said:
Yeah, I guess you do gotta "put up with that" unless you plan on killing the woman :confused:
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Sorry, I don't play the "human shield" game. She's as responsible as he is for what happened.

The dude has issues, and took off with his wife clinging to the hood of his car. If she tried to roll off she may could have been killed! But hey, let's go ahead and blame the victime here.
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I don't doubt that he has issues, and I don't doubt that she could have been killed - but if she had stayed the **** off his car, she'd never have been in harm's way to begin with.

First rule of diffusing a hostile situation - if one party is willing to walk away, you let them. Going after them and jumping up on the hood of the car as they're trying to leave makes about as much sense as stepping in front of a train to get it to stop.

No way I vote to convict this guy if I'm on his jury.
 
Weird that he didn't try to shake her off. Mythbusters showed that it's impossible to hold on to a car beyond a certain turning force.
 
Consultant said:
Weird that he didn't try to shake her off. Mythbusters showed that it's impossible to hold on to a car beyond a certain turning force.
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Ok, see that is where I was going with posting this article. I was wondering if it were even possible to hold on to a windshield wiper blade for that length of time? I mean, wouldn't pressure or force or something cause the blade to snap? They just don't seem that strong.
 
MacVixen said:
Ok, see that is where I was going with posting this article. I was wondering if it were even possible to hold on to a windshield wiper blade for that length of time? I mean, wouldn't pressure or force or something cause the blade to snap? They just don't seem that strong.
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Climb onto the front of a minivan and get someone to drive it at 30mph: I suspect you will find the aerodynamic pressure quite impressive. The keyword here is "minivan". Those usually have rather more vertical noses than your typical automobile, so the air pressure will tend to pin you onto the front.
 
skunk said:
Remind me to disbar you from being on the jury at my trial. You cannot possibly hold that this lunatic was justified in his actions.
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Not any more than I can hold that her own stupidity led to this as well.

Like I said previously, putting yourself in harm's way should not in any way absolve you from blame for what happens. When you use yourself as a human shield, you're going to get hurt - why should it be the other guy's fault?
 
Antares said:
Wow! That couple needs some serious marriage counseling. Hopefully, they can work out their issues and get back to a healthy marriage.
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I seem to remember the radio program hosts, where I heard the story from, indicating this wasn't the first time something like this happened in the marriage.
 
MacVixen said:
Ok, see that is where I was going with posting this article. I was wondering if it were even possible to hold on to a windshield wiper blade for that length of time? I mean, wouldn't pressure or force or something cause the blade to snap? They just don't seem that strong.
Click to expand...

Maybe she was holding to the hood and the wiper blade.

Otherwise it's difficult to hold on during turns. Probably not going 100 mph on highway though.
 
Tomorrow said:
Not any more than I can hold that her own stupidity led to this as well.

Like I said previously, putting yourself in harm's way should not in any way absolve you from blame for what happens. When you use yourself as a human shield, you're going to get hurt - why should it be the other guy's fault?
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When was the last time you tried to jump off the front of a moving vehicle?
 
He wants to go to jail so he doesn't have to put with this woman. Of course divorce is always a good option to. He must have been pretty pissed off to keep driving. It must have been that time of the month.
 
skunk said:
When was the last time you tried to jump off the front of a moving vehicle?
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When was the last time you jumped on the hood of someone's car when they were leaving in a rage?

As for your question: The last time I jumped off the hood of a moving car was last summer. Of course it wasn't going very fast and definitely wasn't on the free way.
 
skunk said:
Remind me to disbar you from being on the jury at my trial. You cannot possibly hold that this lunatic was justified in his actions.
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I'm with Tomorrow on this one.

It sounds like they both share responsibility. He was trying to get away from an argument. She escalated the situation by jumping on the car :)eek:).

Should he have stopped? Yes. Which is why he shares some of the blame. But she put herself in harms way in the first place. She should have just let the guy drive away.
 
What simply amazes me about this article is that the minivan was able to reach 100 mph going over the Altamont Pass!!!! He must have been running Premium!! Yet, that amazes me to, given the gas prices these days!! :D;):D

P.S. I'm also with the camp that places part of the blame on her! She is the one who chose to throw herself on the hood of a moving car! Stupid with a capital S!!
 
JMcDon1007 said:
I'm also with the camp that places part of the blame on her! She is the one who chose to throw herself on the hood of a moving car! Stupid with a capital S!!
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Do you have any evidence that the car was moving? Much more likely that she jumped on to prevent it moving. In these circumstances, the moment the husband started moving forward, he was potentially committing a crime, and if he did not stop, she had little option but to cling on: jumping off the hood of a speeding minivan is highly likely to result in death or serious injury.
 
MacVixen said:
Ok, see that is where I was going with posting this article. I was wondering if it were even possible to hold on to a windshield wiper blade for that length of time? I mean, wouldn't pressure or force or something cause the blade to snap? They just don't seem that strong.
Click to expand...

I can see a windshield wiper company hiring this woman to do a commercial promoting their blade durability. Whether it's money or dirt, either way she'll be rolling in it :)
 
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