My home made Segway like platform threw me the other day. I think it was a bad dead man switch. It stalled momentarily while I was going down the basement hallway and it nose dived, throwing me over the handlebars and on to the ceramic tile floor, scraped/cut my legs a bit, hit my head on the tile but with my hand in between, just missing the edge of a door way. Happened so fast I couldn’t do much to protect myself, I did consciously get my hand between my head and the floor. I’m sure I had a concussion of some level, as I had a weird head ache the rest of the day and was occasionally a lil dizzy.
So having experienced that, and how fast that flip can happen, it’s no wonder the Segway company owner could get thrown off a cliff without any way to stop yourself, and I was doing only a few miles a hour. Not that I know how his accident happened, but only imagining the possibilities outdoors after my little accident.
I think part of the issue is the sense of security we get when riding something, when it is actually balancing for you, something you do naturally and when you do it yourself, you can instinctively protect yourself in a fall better than this I believe. And the pivot point being so short and right below your feet makes it happen so fast, unlike a bike for example where if you go over the handle bars, the pivot point is a much larger arch, and you have a lil more time to think about how you will fall. Plus in that case you would usually see it coming. If power dies on a balancing platform, you don’t roll to a stop. It’s like having someone kick your legs out from under you while you are running, and not seeing it coming. So there is the anatomy of a Segway style accident. Not cool and unbelievably fast.