A trained paramedic from Pennsylvania literally landed on the 2008 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records by accident.

Matthew McKnight, 29, now holds the record for "Greatest Distance Thrown in a Car Accident" after Guinness recognized his amazing feat of being thrown 118 feet (36 meters) by a car that him in a 2001 accident.

The distance is the equivalent to dropping him from a 10-story building.

The Connellsville Township Volunteer firefighter lived to tell the tale, but not after a two-week hospital confinement and undergoing nearly three months in rehabilitation. The accident left him with two dislocated shoulders and a broken shoulder, pelvis, leg and tailbone.

McKnight was off-duty when he stopped to help the victims of a two-vehicle accident along Interstate 376 in Monroeville, about 24 kilometers east of Pittsburgh on Oct. 26, 2001.