In a totally understandable attempt to outrun the zombies chomping at his tail, 19-year-old Jerimiah Hartline rocketed down a California highway Monday in an 18-wheeler, causing several wrecks, injuring seven people, and eventually flipping the vehicle on its side, blocking every lane of traffic for over seven hours.
The Tennessee native had reportedly stolen the 18-wheeler Saturday evening after he hitched a ride from truck driver Daniel Martinez in his home state. As Martinez left the truck at a weigh station, Hartline said he started hallucinating that zombies were chasing him. Terrified, Hartline hopped in the driver's seat and slammed the pedal to the floor, racing off with the truck and a payload of strawberries.
When Hartline reached Temecula, Calif. Monday afternoon, he desperately tried to shake off the zombies by swerving across all four lanes of traffic on the highway, slamming into several cars in the process and causing a chain reaction wreck that injured seven people. Hartline then lost control of the big rig. The 2007 Freightliner three-axle tractor truck tumbled over itself, and landed on its side, pouring the strawberries across the highway.
After he crashed the truck, Hartline reportedly got out of the vehicle and flagged down a white van. When the driver of the van tried to help Hartline, the teen rushed to the man's vehicle, attempting to steal it, but the driver "threw him out," said California Highway Patrol Office Nathan Baer.
"He was arrested at the crash scene and appeared to be in an altered state, claiming he was being chased by zombies," explained Baer.
"Hartline swerved the truck side to side to shake the zombies off," he added.
Two people were seriously injured in the incident, one of which - a 19-year-old woman - is still in receiving treatment in the hospital for a head injury and severed artery.
Hartline was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, reckless driving, vehicle theft, attempted vehicle theft, driving without a licence and involvement in a hit-and-run resulting in injury. He plead not guilty to all charges.
"We will add more charges," Baer said.
Hartline was placed in the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta, Calif. and his bail was set at $500,000. He will go to court April 17.
Long hair, bell bottom jeans, loud, corruptive rock music, fleeing for your life from the flesh-hungry spawn of the apocalypse - there are some things adults will just never understand, man.
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