Earlier this month, drivers on Interstate 40 — a nearly coast-to-coast highway that runs through Oklahoma — were traveling earlier this month, they witnessed an inmate dangling from the back of a moving prison van. It was caught on camera…but it wasn’t a scene from a movie.
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Cellphone video recorded by Tiggin Martin showed an inmate, clad in a bright-orange prison jumpsuit and clearly handcuffed, hanging out of the back window of a state prison transport van moving at freeway speeds in Oklahoma City. From the back of the van, he’s seen gesturing to other motorists while dangling half-way from the van’s right rear window which authorities say was broken out.
Martin told local channel KFOR that she and her sister Alexis Martin, who was also in the car, initially thought they were witnessing some sort of joke or a prank. “You’re driving, you’re trying to pay attention to what you’re doing, but you’re kind of like, ‘What is this guy doing?’” Alexis told the outlet, adding that they began to worry thinking the handcuffed man could get run over if he jumped.
She said the ordeal “only lasted for about a minute or two until they pulled off the highway, but when we saw him, we were all like, ‘Oh, my God.’”
The van, per the state corrections department, was conducting a “routine transport” when the inmate, whose name will not be released, damaged the window. Afterwards, the prisoner started hanging out of a back window. The department said in a statement: “Our officers immediately recognized the situation, exited the highway and called for additional law enforcement support.”
The department added that the man was “secured” and his trip was completed without further incident. Their statement concluded: “The Oklahoma Department of Corrections remains committed to transparency, accountability and ensuring the safety of all individuals in our care and all Oklahomans.”
The Martin sisters told KFOR they’d like something to be done to help prevent future incidents like that from reoccurring. Alexis Martin suggested, “You should have had him in something a little safer for him and the person driving and the people around us.”
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