If you are a Guinness record holder you don’t want anyone to top that of course. Matthew McKnight from Connellsville actually hopes nobody will, because his record is nothing to brag about. He earned his place in “The Book” by being thrown 118ft in a car accident.

This 29-year-old lived to tell about being thrown almost 36m by a car that hit him while traveling about 70mph. This happened on October 26, 2001 while McKnight was trying to help victims along Interstate 376 in Monroeville, 15 miles from Pitsburg.

He suffered two dislocated shoulders plus a broken shoulder, pelvis, leg and tailbone. After two weeks in the hospital and 80 days in rehab he finally returned to work in April 2002.

McKnight is a volunteer firefighter and paramedic.He works full time as a communication specialist at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.

His emergence room physician, Dr. Eric Brader, submitted paperwork for the record, which Guinness recognized in 2003, but this record was not listed until the 2008 edition.

“I thought it was a big joke. Dr. Brader is known for joking around a lot,” McKnight told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “But when he brought (the paperwork) to me, I saw how serious he was.”

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