February 2008

Juice KF4 at a Car Crash

Right after Leatherman came out with the Juice line I bought a KF4, so maybe it was 6 years ago. After owning it half a year or so, I was driving down a winding and hilly country road near my home in central NY State, and was the first person to come upon a car accident. A young woman had pulled her car out to see if any traffic was coming, and pulled out a bit too far, allowing a passing delivery truck to clip the nose of her car. Heck, it nearly removed the nose, grill, hood, radiator and all. The trucker kept control as best he could, and veered off the road and came to a rest in a hay field. I stopped my car, and got to the girl. She was thankfully unhurt, but the impact had resulted in the engine racing at what sounded like full throttle.

I helped the girl out of the car, had her sit by the side of the road, and looked under where the hood used to be. All I had with me was the Juice, so I went to work first unscrewing the battery cables, which silenced the horn but did not stop the engine (I know, I know, once it starts you don't need a battery - I'm a veterinarian, not a mechanic for Pete's sake). I then used the Leatherman to pull each sparkplug wire off, and that did the trick. Would the engine have blown up and hurt or killed someone if I hadn't stopped it - who knows, but I had the Leatherman handy, and it seemed the thing to do. By then the trucker had walked back - tears streaming down his face - he almost collapsed when he saw the girl, all he could say was "Oh my god, I thought I killed her". Other help came, then the police, so I left.

On the drive home I saw that I had cut my hands on the handle of the Juice, and that I had twisted the jaws out of alignment. I had ruined my favorite pocket knife. A letter to Leatherman, however, had a brand new one in my mailbox within a week, and it is in my pocket every day to this day.


Paul B., DVM

Canastota, NY