Drop Kick Bride
Out of context: Reply #12
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- mangosnot0
yea that's how we roll here in Pittsburgh. We also jump our boats off the dams and lockes:
By F.A. Krift
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, April 28, 2008A man attempting to sell his boat for $33,000 came away feeling like a million-dollar action movie hero Sunday after he and two passengers escaped serious injury when the boat jumped an Allegheny River dam.
Retired state trooper Roger Hruby said he and his son Santo allowed an interested buyer to test drive a 2002 Sea Ray Sundeck sport boat named "Blue line" on the river about 1:30 p.m.
Headed downriver, the Hrubys were explaining the boat's control levers to the driver when they unexpectedly saw the Lock and Dam No. 2 under the Highland Park Bridge.
Propelled by a 320-horsepower twin-prop engine, the boat was moving about 35 mph when it soared off the 12-foot dam. It hit the water square and upright, Hruby said, and no one fell out.
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"I feel like Bruce Willis in a movie," Hruby said, referring to the Hollywood star's role in 1993's "Striking Distance," which had a climactic river chase complete with a 50-foot jump over the Natrona Dam, upriver on the Allegheny.
Hruby, of Dravosburg, said he usually boats on the Monongahela River near McKeesport instead of on the Allegheny. He said buoys warning boaters of the dam were not out yet. The three had been on the river about a half-hour before reaching the dam, Hruby said.
While he banged his cheek near his right eye, Hruby didn't lose his green flip-flops. He fell to the boat floor to brace himself, he said. He never felt the engine's propeller hit the dam.
Santo Hruby son was transported to UPMC Presbyterian, Oakland, with a fractured tailbone, his father said. The driver, who was not identified, was uninjured.
The 24-foot boat seemed intact, and Pittsburgh River Rescue officials were able to drive it to a Sharpsburg boat dock.
"Wow, that was crazy to come through unscathed," Hruby said.
Later he added: "I wish we could hit the lottery like that."
James Holman, district chief of the city's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, said the boaters were lucky to avoid serious injuries.
In September, two men drove a speedboat over the dam but were uninjured. Two people died when a pleasure boat went over the dam in 2006.