West Virginia Coal Miners Push An Electric Vehicle To A Charging Station
If that isn't the perfect headline for The Babylon Bee I don't know what is. Unfortunately for a couple trying to get away for the weekend it really happened. They apparently didn't map out a route that included enough charging stations for their electric vehicle.
Last week a couple from Washington D.C. was headed to a weekend getaway in their electric vehicle when their battery died. The vehicle died in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia. Luckily the middle of nowhere had a coal mine nearby.
The mine's foreman was contacted and several miners were recruited to help push the electric vehicle to the mine's guard shack where the couple was able to charge it.
Tucker County Republican state Sen. Randy Smith shared the story along with a couple of pictures of the stranded couple on Facebook. He confirmed it would have been difficult to get a tow truck out to where their electric vehicle died.
"So here are 5 coal miners pushing a battery car to the coal mine to charge up," Smith said. "If you look closely you can see our coal stockpile and load out in the background. This just shows you coal miners are good people and will go out of their way to help anyone friend or foe."
"I'm honestly glad they ended up where they could get some help because they couldn't get a tow truck to come and this is out in the middle of nowhere."
Facebook/Randy Smith
Doesn't look like we're quite ready for an EV future
Smith and a couple of the coal miners involved joined Fox & Friends to discuss saving the stranded drivers. The senator summed up the situation perfectly.
"It was pretty ironic… to be plugged into a coal mine," State Sen. Smith told co-host Steve Doocy. "You can't make this stuff up… We had some good conversations, we're still laughing about it."
He added, "I noticed that the people who broke down were from Washington, D.C., and I do know that sometimes coal miners have a bad rap.".
"And we just wanted to show them that… we have a heart, and we're good people."
It's good to see that coal miners still have a role in this electric vehicle future. Not only will they still be mining coal to create the power necessary to charge them, but they'll be pushing dead electric vehicles to charging stations.
It's also a good thing that these two were close to a coal mine when their electric vehicle died. Next time they might not be so lucky. Maybe keep the EV at home on long trips or invest in a really long extension cord until more charging stations are available.