Death by Segway

[Babytoxie]

If I didn't know better, I'd think this was from The Onion:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/09/...ex.html?hpt=T2

[hawkeyethearcher]

crazy

[rychehitman]

so his creation killed him


that really sucks!

[hawkeyethearcher]

he didn't invent it he just bought the company that sells it

[Meteor Man]

Yeah, I read about this on MSN. He was a British entrepreneur that bought the Segway company from the guy who invented them.

I have to say that I wasn't completely shocked that someone was killed on one of these things. We used to have two of them in an office that I worked in, and we had a few people get hurt, with me being one of them. I was driving it down the hallway at work, and there was a box against someone's closed door on the floor in the hall. I misjudged the width of the hall, and thought I could drive the Segway by the box, but as I passed, the left wheel hit the box, and the wheel went up into the air. I had to step off the platform with my right leg to keep from going down, and when I did, the Segway slammed into my leg, over and over again, which was pinned against the wall. See, the Segway has a gyroscope in it, and it still sensed that it was going forward, so it smashed my leg about 5 or 6 times before I could pull my leg out and pull the steering handle of the Segway back into an upright position. I had tendon and muscle damage from the incident, which bothered my for at least two years almost daily, and still gives me some twinges of pain even now.

So, the reason I explained all of this, is so people can understand how a guy could drive one of these things off of a 30 foot embankment. He could have lost his balance for just a minute, and not been able to pull back on the handle in time. Very sad.....

[lord odin]

That poor man his family can take comfort in knowing he died doing what he loved.

[hawkeyethearcher]

i have never seen a segway up close. do they not have a cord to make them stop if you fall off like an exercise treadmill does, heck many items have this feature, or is it just that people don't attach it to themselves?

[Meteor Man]

Originally Posted by hawkeyethearcher

i have never seen a segway up close. do they not have a cord to make them stop if you fall off like an exercise treadmill does, heck many items have this feature, or is it just that people don't attach it to themselves?

The ones I rode had no cord. Maybe there have been upgrades to them, but I'm not aware of anything like what you mentioned, Hawk....

[nbr3bagshotrow]

http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed...als&from=yahoo