An identified 50-year-old man is in critical condition after leaping from car-to-car along Philadelphia's busy Schuylkill Expressway yesterday. Jalopnik reader BmoreDLJ was in one of the cars he climbed on top of before being struck and shares this chilling tale.
My folks and little sister were driving to my apartment in NW Philly from Center City and got stuck in traffic on I-76. When traffic paused, this guy jumped out of a car in the lane to the left of us and then ran out in front of our car (a CR-V). We were stopped, so he wasn't in immediate danger. He then climbed onto hood and roof our car and essentially stayed up there, "hugging" the roof for 3-4 minutes.
My sister (in the back seat) called 9-1-1 and the dispatcher told her the state police were on it. My dad, who was driving, slowly pulled the car over to the shoulder and we waited for him to get off the roof. When he jumped off the back of our roof and was clear of us, we drove off, without injuring him.
From what I hear, he apparently jumped onto three more cars, and the fourth driver was not having it; he reacted by suddenly accelerating, throwing him off his car and to the ground where he was allegedly run over by another car, hence the critical condition. It was pretty clear the man was either drunk or high or both.
My folks and sis were in town visiting from Baltimore. Philly roads always put on a show for them, unfortunately.