Wheel Chair Motor

Man rides wheelchair across country to raise awareness

COLUMBIANA COUNTY, Ohio - Over ten thousand Americans suffer spinal cord injuries each year, confining most of them to a wheelchair for life. One California man wants to help change that.

Chet Dyreson decided to build his own motorized wheelchair, and ride it across the country. "It's got a 250 cc Kawasaki engine and a golf cart drive clutch," explained Dyreson.

He recently drove through Columbiana County on his way from California to Washington D.C.

"It's an automatic magnet for people to talk to me," Dyreson said at a stop in Salem. "I have gotten a lot of people's attention going down the road. I'm getting emails and phone calls."

Chet injured his spine in a motor cross accident.

"My injury's 11 years old," he said. "Chances of them fixing me are probably slim, this isn't about me, this is about young kids that get hurt."

His sons Clint and Casey are motor cross riders. They followed their dad in a big box truck along with their dog sprocket. In large letters the box truck advertises their website, http://wheelingtocuresci.org/ .

"At first I didn't think he was really doing it," said Chet's son, Clint. "And when he said he was going to Washington, I thought he meant Washington state, not Washington D.C."

"It's pretty fulfilling," added Casey. "It brings out a lot of good in people. Every place we stop it's good people you talk to, no one's really negative."

They stop in towns like Salem to meet with supporters like Craig Gainor of Newtech Corporation.

"We made a donation, and we'd like to challenge any other businesses in the area to make a donation to this because everybody knows somebody that's in a wheelchair," said Gainor.  

Just 300 miles short of their 4,000 thousand mile journey, Chet's plan is to take his push for further research to Washington where he'll arrive July fourth.

"I would like to get an audience of congressmen and actually sit down and speak to them," Chet explained. "There's a lot of experiments that are government-funded that are successful but they don't get the final funding, so you have a lot of experiments dead on the table." 

And along the way they hope to get more people talking about spinal cord injury, and how to cure it.

"It's one of the very few ailments that there isn't a drug or a surgery that they can at least better the quality of life," Chet said. "You're just stuck where you're at. That's an unfortunate thing and I don't think it needs to be that way.

DWI – Wheelchair is not a motor vehicle « TN Legal Update Blog

Degree DWI.

The definition of motor vehicles includes “every vehicle that is self-propelled”. But, pedestrians are defined as “any person afoot or in a wheelchair.” The definition of wheelchair includes “any manual or motorized wheelchair, scooter, tricycle, or similar device used by a disabled person as a substitute for walking.” In large part, these definitions provided the basis for the Court’s ruling.   

What constitutes a ‘motor vehicle’, though, is not as cut-and-dry as these definitions may make it seem, and will even cover the absurd. For instance, a Minnesotaman pleaded guilty to DWI for driving home a customized, motorized La-Z-Boy with a 0.29 blood alcohol concentration level. Similarly, a riding lawnmower has proven to be a motor vehicle for DWI purposes.

The bottom line is that if you are charged with operating a motor vehicle, whatever kind of motor vehicle it may be, while intoxicated, it is important to hire counsel to guide you through the process and present the best defenses available. 

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This blog entry is written by James Gempeler, an associate at Thomsen Nybeck . James practices in the litigation area of the firm with a focus on general civil litigation, real estate litigation, construction litigation and criminal law, particularly as the prosecutor for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

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