Thrill Seeking Rider Vows To Keep Hanging On
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A viral video is going around of a Chicago man hanging on the back of a truck speeding down the Dan Ryan.
Putting himself and the drivers behind him at serious risk.
He's telling CBS 2's Jeremy Ross why he did it.
He's documented hanging on trucks, trains as well as buses, telling CBS 2 he recently saw a semi slowly pull up, and at at the spur of the moment to hop on. It resulted in a viral video.
Clutching the back of a semi. That's all that's keeping a man from becoming a causality of the interstate pavement. Below is a firm grip and a desire to avoid death in his ongoing search for a high speed thrill ride.
"Like 70, 80 miles per hour. I ain't gonnna lie to you," said 23-year-old Anthony Gray. "It looked slower on the video but he was going real fast. It got my heart racing."
When asked why Gray does it: adrenaline. Gray said he got on the truck at 79th and State Tuesday night.
"I rode to Milwaukee and Ogden," Gray said.
He traveled an estimated 11 miles, at times dancing though danger.
"My momma don't like it," admitted Gray. His Facebook name is Santana Doe. There's one letter difference between doe and die. When asked if he was concerned, Gray said "nope."
"At those speeds on the interstate, a multi-car vehicle pileup if he falls off the truck," said Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Speaking with CBS 2 through Skype, described the video as a threat to anyone on the road.
"He is attracting the attention and distracting a lot of drivers who are barreling down the interstate and need to be paying attention to what they are doing not what he's doing. He could not only kill himself, but other people out there."
"I do it almost every day," said Gray, who admitted that he's tried it on more than trucks.
"I did it on the back of a CTA bus. I did it on the back of a CTA train," Gray said.
CBS 2 dug into court records and saw that the CTA did cite him before. The Illinois State Police Department reviewed the video and said the way the law is written, Gray could be cited with a traffic ticket for $164.
