HANEY Usually Just Cracks People Up

(From The Hartford Courant -- By Pat Seremet)

SCOT HANEY, meteorologist on WFSB-Channel 3 (CBS) in Hartford, Connecticut, is forever warning his viewers to be careful driving when it's icy.

But after he and his VW BEETLE ricocheted off a brick retaining wall into two telephone poles Thanksgiving Day, he says, "Now I'm the idiot!"

It was around 4 am when Haney left his Canton home, heading for a live TV shot at a Farmington road race before going to work downtown, when he found himself between a rock and a hard place.

His first thought upon hitting the wall was, "Oh, damn, my insurance rates are going up, and I'll be late for work."

When he hit the poles, he heard "this huge impact," and his thoughts were more grim.

"I almost could have died," he said Friday, his mother in the background loudly agreeing.

But trouper that he is, he eventually left his car against the pole, got a ride to the race, then to work, and back home for Thanksgiving dinner for 21.

When there wasn't room for all of the cars in the driveway, his friend PAUL MARTE told him to go out and crash one of them.

"I'm buying a Hummer," Haney vowed.