BIRKENFELD, OREGON — An Oregon man was only recently sentenced for a 2017 incident involving an overnight relay race, alcohol and a joyride in a portable restroom truck. According to The Mercury News, the plea deal states David Jon Blackmon will serve 60 days in jail, lose his license for three years and remain on probation for five years.
On night two of the Hood to Coast Relay, Blackmon allegedly got drunk at a relay handoff site and then commandeered a Honey Bucket service truck from the unsuspecting tech cleaning portable restrooms along the race route. Blackmon then drove the truck through the meadow designated as a sleep area for racers, ran over one such racer and dragged her before ditching the truck and running off into the adjacent woods. Blackmon was eventually found via police dog.
At the time of the incident, Blackmon was subject to a no-alcohol consumption court order due to a driving-under-the-influence arrest. Blackmon had been participating in the race with a team organized by his employer; both Blackmon and his team were banned from Hood to Coast events.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA — A traffic jam in Charlotte earlier this month was so bound up that the North Carolina Department of Transportation brought in portable restrooms for commuters, as reported by The Charlotte Observer.
The proverbial logjam began when a grocery-laden semitruck swerved to avoid a stopped vehicle and overturned. Northbound lanes on Interstate 85 near Charlotte were closed for nine hours while the scene was cleared. Some stuck drivers chose to abandon their vehicles rather than wait it out.
Meanwhile, it’s still unknown how the portable restrooms were transported to the scene.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — An American Medical Response IndyCar safety worker recently had a close call in a port-a-potty and perhaps had to go back in and check his drawers afterward. The worker hurriedly exited the portable restroom while still zipping up his suit when IndyCar rookie Marcus Ericsson crashed into the tire barrier abutting the restroom. The impact occurred at the end of practice sessions for IndyCar’s Circuit of The Americas. See an all-too-short clip of the incident here.
ACROSS THE POND — Organizers of Australian music festival Sets on the Beach found a new use for portable restrooms: portal to a secret rave. To see how, watch the video at the link. It’s no magic wardrobe, but a rave might be more fun than Narnia anyway.
