PHILADELPHIA, May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It was around 8 PM on the evening of October 18, 2007 when Border Patrol Agent, Luis Pena Jr., was found by his partner in his Ford F-250 XL on the side of the road -- the victim of a rollover. Pena has no memory of that night and no memory at all of the eleven hours preceding the accident -- a phenomenon that has his doctors puzzled. Pena was responding to a narcotics call in Sells, Arizona, an Indian reservation where horses and cattle roam freely. He considers the possibility that he may have tried to avoid hitting either a horse or cattle when his vehicle rolled over. As a result of injuries sustained in the rollover, his vertebrae was dislocated and his spinal cord, pulled out and partially ripped; rendering him a quadriplegic. Luis Pena remarked on the similarities of his injuries to another quadriplegic victim of 'roof crush', Dr. David Garcia, who is scheduled to testify at the June 4th Senate Hearing on 'Roof Crush.' Both victims have the same level of injuries, right down to the placement of the scar on their heads where the A-pillar of their vehicle collapsed into them. Luis Pena has a wife, Jennifer, and two children. Prior to becoming a Border Patrol Agent, he worked as a volunteer firefighter for the Warminster, PA Fire Department and as a police officer for the Amtrak Police Department. He also was summoned to New York to assist during the 9/11 attack on America. "The auto industry," said Pena, "should put the same effort into reinforcing roofs and making vehicles safer as they do into making money. If they had been more responsible, maybe I would still be walking and a lot of other people would be alive." Border Patrol Agents risk their lives on a daily basis; but an even greater danger looms when one of their SUVs overturns, as happens often. The care of 'roof crush' victims and the cost to taxpayers is $34 billion a year. Jennifer and Luis Pena plan to attend the Senate Hearing on 'Roof Crush' scheduled for Wednesday, June th,
from
to
11:30
AM
in
room
Russell
Senate Office
Building,
Washington,
D.C.
They
also
plan
to
participate
in
the
June
rd Press Conference from 10:30 to 11:30 AM outside the Russell Senate Office Building hosted by People Safe in Rollovers Foundation. Contact: Sabina Clarke (215) 509-2345 cell (215) 908-7960
Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080529/DC23606
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
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