toledoblade.com --

With a supportive brace around his neck and an arm in a sling yesterday, James Campbell agreed the incident was like a bad episode of Girls Gone Wild.

Mr. Campbell was driving north late Tuesday afternoon on I-75, just south of Perrysburg, when he swerved to avoid something coming toward him. His Dodge Neon lurched into the median and flipped several times.

He ended up with a helicopter ride to Toledo Hospital, a fractured vertebra in his neck, and a broken thumb. His passenger, Jeff Long, is still at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center with a broken rib and possible liver damage.

"It was crazy. I don't think Jimmy knew what it was, so he swerved," Mr. Long said.

So, what was the unidentified flying object? It wasn't a piece of tire, a rock, or even an animal.

It was a red bra, previously hung on the antenna of a Mercury Sable occupied by four teenage girls who, well, went a little wild. And the Ohio Highway Patrol is considering charges against them.

Mr. Long, 47, of Toledo, said he and Mr. Campbell, 37, also of Toledo, saw the girls sticking their pierced tongues out and making inappropriate gestures toward them. He said one girl climbed from the back of the car to the front, hung a red bra on the antenna, and rolled up the window.

"Usually a girl will make eye contact and you'll just wave and that will be it. I don't know what those girls were trying to do," Mr. Campbell said. "They went a little overboard and me and my partner got the worst of it."

Trooper Chris Hasty said she has identified three of the girls in the car and is looking for the fourth. All are 17.

Trooper Hasty said witnesses have corroborated Mr. Campbell's story, saying the girls flashed other motorists. Neither Mr. Campbell nor Mr. Long said they saw any skin, like that seen on the raunchy Girls Gone Wild videos, often advertised on late-night television.

Mr. Campbell, who was tossed from the car as it flipped, was cited for not wearing a seat belt and for failure to maintain control of his vehicle. He's a little upset that, so far, he's the only one to get a ticket.

"I get cited and I'm not even the one who did anything," Mr. Campbell said. "What's the world coming to where 17-year-old girls would do something like that on the highway?"

Despite the injuries, Mr. Campbell figures it could have been worse. "It could've been a whole pile of cars instead of one that flipped. That wouldn't have been good at all," he said.

Contact Joe Vardon at:
jvardon@theblade.com
or 419-410-5055.

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