FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAN RETURNS HOME AFTER BEING STUCK ON HIGHWAY FOR THREE MONTHS
Ninety three days after leaving his office, Boont Greely finally arrived home after being delayed due to what some experts are calling Hartford Highway Syndrome.
The commute home started off for Greely the same way that it always did: driving the three blocks from his office onto Farmington Avenue, then taking a left and driving the three miles to his front door. However, the commute that normally took Greely less than fifteen minutes to complete turned into nearly a 12 week ordeal on that cool spring night. "It was awful," reported Greely as he exited his car after pulling into the driveway of his house on Main Street in Hartford's trendy Capitol District.
Friends and co-workers who have been following the disappearance of Greely are overjoyed to have him back. Dave Belk, a long time friend and co-worker remembers the night of his disappearance well, "It was the afternoon of May 21, I think. We were listening to 106 WCCC [FM] like we always did when Rhino [the traffic announcer] came on saying that there was a major accident on Farmington Ave, snarling traffic all around downtown. Boont then muttered something or other about how the traffic jam was going to make it impossible to get home."
Police who were called in when Greely disappeared confirmed the situation that afternoon. Officer Barney Flats was working the traffic detail on Farmington Avenue that night. "It was a mess," said Officer Flats, "a truck carrying Zima and Amstel Light to Bourbon Street North [ed: a popular bar in the Union Square area of Hartford] crashed into the back end of a bus carrying ten or fifteen students to the University of Hartford. The students came out, ostenibly to make sure that everything was OK and that nobody was hurt, but as soon as they saw the cases of beer sliding out of the truck, panic ensued."
Jacques, a member of DKE Fraternity was driving the bus when it crashed, "It was, like, horrible. I ran out to see if everything was alright, and then I saw the carnage. Cases of beer were smashed all along the street and sidewalk. I screamed for my [DKE] brothers to come out and help."
That's when the real problems started, according to Officer Flats recounting of that afternoon. "Before you could say 'boo', there were dozens of underage frat boys running through the street, grabbing beers and dashing off to their cars and speeding off. It seems that someone called the frat house and told them that a beer truck had crashed and that there was all the beer on the street for the taking. Of course, we wouldn't allow it because that was stealing."
People all throughout Connecticut were glued to the television that evening as the local news reported about the dangerous situation. John Cottrell, a local shop owner, remembered watching the news that night. "It was horrible. These college punks were running around, trying to swipe all the beer that they could carry, and the cops were out in force trying to prevent it." Four city blocks were closed off to traffic.
This brings us back to Boont Greely. In an attempt to circumvent the traffic jam, Greely decided to instead take the highway, an action that he rarely took. "I figured that it would be faster," said Greely, "All I had to do was get on at Asylum Ave, go two exits and get off at the Capitol Ave exit. I mean, it couldn't have been simpler." Experts believe that his underestimation of the Hartford interstate system was the beginning of his downfall.
Officer Mark "Deep" Enders, was assigned to the case after receiving a call from Belk when Greely failed to show up for a meeting on Monday, May 24. Based on information provided by Belk, Officer Enders started tracking the last known path of Greely, "It seems that Greely got on the highway at the Asylum Avenue on-ramp heading East. Due to heavy traffic, he was unable to merge left, into a lane, trapping him in the entrance lane. Less than a quarter mile after he entered the highway, his lane turned into an exit-only lane, sending him off to God-knows-where."
Greely briefly explained what happened after that fateful merger, "After I got off the highway, I turned back onto what I thought was the [I-84] West on-ramp, but I ended up going East, which trapped me onto the I-91 South on-ramp." Panic and confusion quickly followed.
A hand-written diary of his Greely's ordeal documents the rest of his travels. Every time he thought he was on the right section of the highway, he got trapped in an exit-only lane, sending him all across the state. Credit card receipts document that he traveled as far as Westerly, RI and Albany, NY in his attempts to get home. "I just drove and drove and drove. When I stopped off for gas, I would ask for directions, which were always in the wrong direction and every time I tried to buy a map, they were all out" noted Greely. The few times I made it close to Hartford, I would invariably get trapped in another of those damned Exit Only lanes and end up in Middletown or something."
However, almost 7000 miles later, Greely finally made it home. "It almost took me getting into an accident, but finally someone got out of my way and I was able to get off at the right exit," mused an almost giddy Greely, "but next time, I think I'll just take the bus."