Bombed on the 4th of July: Former Kansas lawmaker’s truck hit by stray firework | Opinion
Fourth of July fireworks cost Dale Swenson $500, and he didn’t even shoot any off.
Swenson, a former Kansas state legislator from southwest Wichita, went out to his driveway on Saturday morning and discovered that his pickup truck had been hit by a stray skyrocket launched from someone’s July Fourth celebration.
The errant firework shattered the back window of the truck and blew a hole in the fiberglass bed cover, which was peppered with burn marks and fireworks debris.
Swenson and his wife had taken their second car to a family potluck in west Wichita Friday evening.
“We got home about 11 o’clock,” he said. “I don’t think the damage was caused before we got there, but possibly — it was dark. It was loud here till past 1 (a.m.). There were some loud booms, and then I got up this morning, and there’s this crater in the fiberglass topper on my truck, and it blew out the window … There’s glass everywhere.”
The pickup is Swenson’s pride and joy. It’s a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado, with low mileage and a special graphics package.
“It’s been a long time since I fired off any fireworks,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever fired off anything that would do that kind of damage. That’s pretty powerful. It could have killed somebody.”
This was the first Fourth of July since Wichita relaxed regulations on fireworks to allow general public use of skyrockets and aerial mortar shells. For decades, the only fireworks allowed in the city limits were the “safe and sane” variety, the biggest of which were small ground fountains that could shoot sparks a few feet.
The city repealed its ban on aerial fireworks, largely because they were readily available just outside city limits — and city residents routinely ignored the ban, turning neighborhoods throughout Wichita into free-fire zones that law enforcement was unable to control.
Swenson served in the Kansas Legislature from 1995 to 2011. While he may not have been the most powerful lawmaker in Topeka, he was certainly one of the most interesting.
He was a painter at Boeing Wichita, but got laid off when in 2005 when the company sold its local aircraft plant.
The only laid-off worker in the Legislature, he grew increasingly disillusioned with his party as the GOP shifted away from traditional priorities like support for public education and consumer protection, and increasingly sided with big business interests that financed the conservative takeover of the party and the Legislature.
Shortly after winning reelection in 2008, Swenson switched parties and became a Democrat. Two years later, he was defeated in his bid for reelection by Les Osterman, who had run against Swenson as a Democrat in 2000, but switched parties himself to run as a Republican in 2010.
This year, in a nod to big fireworks (meaning both the type and the industry), the Legislature passed a law allowing permanent fireworks stores to sell year-round, instead of only during a brief window around the Fourth of July.
Swenson’s not a fan of the changes at the local or state level.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said. “Bigger isn’t necessarily better. People could get hurt, property get damaged. I think there should be consequences for that.”
In his case, there won’t be.
He doesn’t know who fired the stray firework that hit his truck, so he’s on the hook for a $500 insurance deductible to get it fixed.
Personally, I think he should send the bill to City Hall.
