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By LINDSAY PETERSON

lpeterson@tampatrib.com

Published: April 28, 2009

TAMPA - Michael Foradori's stomach fluttered as he rolled his wheelchair onto the odd-looking platform.

He'd seen pictures of it, with its 24-inch wheels that supposedly could go anywhere from a beach to a wilderness trail, but he was skeptical.

He nudged the joystick on his wheelchair and the vehicle lurched forward. Another nudge and it went a little farther, and a little farther, until he was cruising the lawn behind the University of South Florida's Research Park.

The crowd watching Foradori broke into applause as Dana Roeling and John Trivento high-fived, then wiped tears from the corners of their eyes.

Roeling and Trivento are with Rehab Ideas, a company built around what they call the Mobili T Rover and four other devices, all created by USF engineering students, for those with disabilities.

Foradori, 23, paralyzed since he was 15, is the first person to buy a Rehab Rover. It costs about $7,500.

As soon has he gets home to Booneville, Miss., he said, he's going to head into the wilderness and "start making some trails." The Rover runs on power supplied by the driver's wheelchair.

Foradori spent his youth hunting and fishing. He was paralyzed when he fell off a wall and cracked his skull in a fight outside a fast-food restaurant. He slowly regained the use of his lower arms. Slowly, he says, he's learning to create a new life.

Last year he won $22 million in a long-standing lawsuit against the restaurant, Captain D's. All he wanted, he said, was to be able to go back into the woods, so he bought 43 acres. A friend set up a device to enable him to shoot a rifle, and with the Rover, for the first time in eight years, he'll be able to explore the rough terrain freely.

On Monday, when he finally got the hang of driving the Rover, he didn't want to stop, he said. "I just wanted to keep going and going and going."

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

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