SegwayChat - My final accident

It’s been almost a year since a moment’s distraction allowed a runaway skateboard to send me flying into the street, causing me months of pain and discomfort. At that time, I posted about the incident, and said I’d decided, with strong influence from my wife, to give up gliding. I sold one of my two i2s to a local tour company. I was going to sell both, but decided there was no hurry to sell the other one - I’d see how it went.

Somehow, as I healed, my wife’s position seemed to soften on the subject, and with my assurance that I’d be much more careful in the future, I returned to gliding - even taking advantage of a good deal on a second new i2. She still worried about me whenever I was out gliding, but I’d always tell her not to - I’d be fine.

A little over a week ago, I was gliding home in the dark, on a route I’d taken many times, but only during the day. As I was coming from a gym class, and it was a warm day, I had on just shorts and a t-shirt - and a helmet, of course. I came around a corner, turned right to go up a hill, and forgot there was a storm drain just beyond the corner. Since my headlight swept around beyond it, it stayed in the shadow. The right wheel fell in, and down I went. I mashed up both hands trying to break my fall, badly skinned my knee in three places, and somehow sliced open a 4” long by 1/2” deep gash in my calf.

To make things worse, I’m on Warfarin, and happened then to also be on Prednisone for bronchitis, which had caused my INR to rise to 4.0 from a target 2.5. Translation - my blood was very thin, and I lost a lot. I felt it pouring down my leg, but stupidly, and possibly in shock, I thought maybe I could make it the remaining two miles home and deal with it there. I managed to get back on and continue up the hill. After going about two blocks, I suddenly knew I was about to faint, and pulled onto a grassy area. I tried to grab onto a fence, but ‘woke’ sometime later, thinking I was home in bed, until I realized my head was on grass, and remembered what happened. I tried to get up, but just collapsed again, and woke thinking I was home, etc. During my conscious periods, I was aware of a number of cars driving by without stopping, in spite of my Segway’s headlight and one on my helmet both being lit.

Finally, after about a half hour, I heard a female voice asking if I was okay. All I could do was mumble something about fainting every time I tried to stand. She told me to stay down, called 911, and flagged down another car. She used her sweater to mop up some of the blood, and stayed with me until the ambulance came. I should mention that she had three small kids with her, and I’m sure she was anxious to get them home to bed, as it was by then 9PM.

Bottom line - I got 9 stitches in my leg, and spent two nights in the hospital before I could stand without getting light-headed, but nothing was broken, and I should be getting around pretty well in a month or two. I got the woman’s name, and we’ve been in touch on Facebook, and will be meeting for coffee tomorrow morning. I’m sure it will be quite emotional.

Once I’m able, I’ll clean all the caked blood off the Segway, and both will be sold. After gliding nearly every day for 15 years, I somehow don’t think I’ll miss it that much, and it will make a big difference in my wife’s stress level. I’ll probably stop following SegwayChat soon as well. I think true closure will require putting everything Segway behind me. I’ll put some Segway paraphernalia up for sale here in the near future. Framed Segway poster, unused Segway sweatshirt, Segway Parking Only sign, racks, etc. Make you such a deal. If you know of anyone in the greater Seattle area who’d like to own a Seg, and is level-headed and safety conscious, let me know.