18-year-old with no arms or legs learns to drive with the help of a custom-made truck

DECORAH, Iowa (KCRG/Gray News) - A young man in Iowa who was born without arms or feet is learning how to drive with a custom-made truck.

Anders Lovstuen is getting ready to graduate high school while also learning how to drive with his disability.

The 18-year-old was helped by experts from Maine and Texas to make the adaptive vehicle possible.

“There are solutions out there to a lot of problems that you didn’t even know existed,” Lovstuen said.

Despite being born without limbs, Lovstuen said this has not affected how he approaches life.

“I’ve never really known anything different,” he said. “So you know it’s not necessarily ... Yeah, there are a few things I can’t do, but most things I can do, even if I do them a little bit differently than everybody else.”

That includes driving.

When he was 15 years old, Lovstuen reached out to his local Vocational Rehabilitation Services to see what his options were for driving.

The VR in Decorah reached back out and got Lovstuen in contact with Texas-based company Driving Ambitions, which helps people with disabilities drive.

From there Lovstuen trained on an outfitted van learning all the controls. But because he lives on a gravel road, they quickly learned he needed something a bit bigger.

So, they looked into Maine-based company Electronic Mobility Controls. They were able to outfit a truck with everything Lovstuen needed to drive.

“Little regular things like that really help sink in the magnitude of me being able to drive and, you know, go places and do things that I want to do,” Lovstuen said.

When the truck was outfitted, it was shipped to Iowa for Lovstuen to complete his training.

To maneuver the truck, Lovstuen uses a joystick with his shoulder. He uses a touch screen with his nose for things like putting the truck into gear.

Michael Courtney, a driver evaluator for Driving Ambition, said the 18-year-old will go through 40 hours of training.

“It’s very comprehensive. We take them everywhere in between the parking lot to the freeway and of course, working on parking and everything else, getting them prepared to be able to control the vehicle,” Courtney said.

Once he passes the driver’s exam, Lovstuen said he plans to drive himself to graduation parties and out to see his show cattle on his grandfather and uncle’s farm.

“I can just go there by myself,” he said.

Lovstuen said those with disabilities should never give up on their independence.

“If you really look hard, there a lot of problems have already been solved that you might not think would have,” he said. “Yeah, there’s a lot of different cool stuff out there.”

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