SAVED BY THE CRASH

An apple this day didn’t keep the doctor away BACK SEAT DRIVING—Remember when some people used to argue that motorcyclists are safer if they don't wear helmets? That was before Gary Busey’s unfortunate helmetless accident in 1988. Richard Paylor can make the argument that crashing through a concrete median saved his life. In his case, however, it’s probably true—the crash saved him from choking to death on an apple he was eating. The 55-year-old truck driver from Fairless Hills, Bucks County, was eating an apple as he drove on a busy highway in Reading around nine o’clock in the morning . A piece of the apple subsequently lodged in his throat when he began choking, according to police. “The Pennsylvania trucker may have saved his own life with an unintentional and very elaborate Heimlich maneuver,” reports the Reading Eagle. Authorities say Paylor then lost consciousness and crashed through a concrete median on the West Shore Bypass before stopping. The Reading Eagle went on to report that investigators believe the apple was dislodged when Paylor slammed his chest against the steering wheel. Police evidently recovered a chunk of apple from the dashboard. Investigators spoke with doctors who backed up their conclusion that the accident dislodged the offending fruit.