THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay Police have been contacted by the motorist who was recorded driving down Memorial Avenue with the hood of his vehicle up.
In the video, posted to YouTube last Friday, the driver appears to be navigating his way down the busy street by peering through a gap between the raised hood and his engine.
Traffic Sgt. Bill Pollock on Monday said he was shocked at seeing such a dangerous act.
“My first reaction was it was kind of a dramatic pause, as I imagine was most people's. I can’t imagine someone actually doing that,” Pollock said in an interview outside the police service’s Balmoral Street headquarters.
“It looked like he was working on the car. There were some cables in the engine block, and he chose to drive with the hood up. It’s a very dangerous situation. You could tell, even with the people who were videotaping, he didn’t even look over to address them, which makes me think he was total focused on trying not to run someone down.”
On Monday afternoon, police said the driver involved in the incident had contacted them to provide his side of the story.
He stated that he had a mechanical failure resulting in his vehicle needing a boost. The battery was boosted with a portable booster pack which he left in the engine compartment, closed the hood, then proceeded to a garage for repairs.
The man told police the hood blew open en route, and that he chose to continue to drive to the garage rather than pulling over to close the hood.
In a news release, Pollock said "Luckily this event did not end in tragedy, as this is a truly unsafe condition, causing the driver's view to be obstructed."
In the earlier interview, he noted that “Obviously if he’d hit a pedestrian or struck a cyclist or other users of the roadway it would have been really serious.”
The video of the incident had more than 45,000 Facebook shares by Monday morning.
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