<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/LIg0FjU1Xw8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/LIg0FjU1Xw8</a>]]>http://www.wsbtv.com/news/28127904/detail.htmlMagician Hospitalized After Stunt Accident
Posted: 9:50 pm EDT June 3, 2011Updated: 10:16 pm EDT June 3, 2011
ATLANTA -- An Atlanta magician is recovering after a stunt at the Atlanta Motor Speedway Thursday night nearly claimed his life.
Michael Anthony Mooney goes by the stage name of Moodini.
On Thursday night, he was performing a stunt between races whereby he was chained at his wrists to a car. His head was covered with a black bag. In the stunt, the car speeds off and Mooney has just seconds to escape out of the shackles before he's hurled down the track.
He said he's done the stunt twice before without any problems, but Thursday, he said his timing was off and he got pulled down the track.
From his hospital bed at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Mooney told Channel 2 Action News reporter Tony Thomas that he broke an ankle, one wrist, a finger and his clavicle.
"I thank the good Lord I'm not dead right now," Mooney said.
The stunt and the aftermath were recorded by several people in the stands at the speedway and almost immediately uploaded to the Internet.
The video shows Mooney being dragged several feet and then lying on the ground as medical crews rush to his side.
"I remember the car taking off, and I remember feeling the vibrations in the chain because I was blindfolded. Then I remember being on the ground ...being put into an ambulance. I don’t remember hitting my head or breaking anything. I was unconscious for a little while."
"I was crying. It was just excruciating pain," he added.
Mooney said he didn't break down until he arrived at the hospital. That's when he turned his phone on and saw the video of the stunt that his friend had undertaken.
Mooney said he knows what went wrong. It was all in the spreading out of the chain connecting him to the car.
"I just got in a big rush, and I realized I should have taken more time in what I was doing," he said.
Mooney's manager, Terry Stork, said normally Mooney has 8 to 10 seconds after the car takes off to get out of the shackles and free his hands. Thursday night, he had only three seconds because the chain wasn't laid correctly.
"It's like anything else; you take it for granted," Mooney told Thomas.
Stork is staying by Mooney's bedside.
"It just goes to prove no matter how good you are, if you’re not cautious enough, things do happen," he said.
Mooney travels around the area speaking to children about fulfilling their dreams and making the right choices. He uses magic and his stunts to spread his message to church groups and in other venues.
This accident is just the latest twist in his life. He said he lived in foster care as a child, was homeless for a while and even spent time in a juvenile detention center. But he's turned his life around and says he's dedicated his life now to spreading his message -- a message that almost ended Thursday night.
After what is expected to be an extensive recovery period, Mooney says he will return, but with some changes.
"I think I’m going to continue to do the stages and escape stuff on stages, but nothing that's going to end up like this," he said.
"Stick around ... Moodini will be back," he told Thomas. "I ain't going to disappear."
"Just not behind a car! That's right," Mooney replied.
