Jump to content

Accident report thread

RichieV

By RichieV
in General Discussion

Recommended Posts

RichieV Community Regular

RichieV

Posted
Posted

I was going to post this under the automatic shutoff thread but I think it would be useful to have a dedicated accident report thread for everybody's awareness.  Hopefully readers can learn from reported accidents and, if possible, avoid making the same decisions which led to them.  I encourage everybody to report their noteworthy accidents here so people can be more informed about the safety of electric unis.  Here's mine.

Location: Washington, DC

Electric Unicycle Model: IPS 121 122 (16", 260wh battery)

Battery level: I'm guessing 35% as there's no accurate level indicator.  The power light was blinking once a second which means that the battery is between 33% and 67% full.

Weather condition: Nice summer evening, 80 degrees F, no wind or rain

Visibility: Clear night time with ample street lighting

Road condition: Flat city sidewalk with plenty of room and no obstacles

Rider experience level: I'm still new. After learning to balance and comfortably navigate easy obstacles, I'd say I have between 10 to 15 miles of riding under my belt.

What happened: I had spent the afternoon practicing by riding to Fort Ward which is a park about a mile away from my place and then doing a few laps around then riding back.  I like the park for practicing because it's a small circuit with some speed bumps and some slight hills and a number of turns and there's usually a handful of people jogging or walking around to practice weaving and obstacle avoidance.

Afterwards I packed up my wheel into the car and made my way to Hains Point which is a spot in DC that's supposed to be popular for bicycling and rollerblading.  The circuit there is about three miles, and I went around it once.  Pretty boring because it's mostly straight down one side then straight back up the other side.

Needing something more exciting, I drove to the National Mall where all the tourists go see the Washington Monument and many of the popular museums of the Smithsonian Institution.  I parked and started riding up and down the Mall going from the Monument to the Capitol and back again on the other side of the Mall.  This was much more fun weaving through the throng of tourists, feeling sorry for all the poor suckers who couldn't smoothly glide along like me.  It was in the middle of this that I decided to check to see how my battery was doing and saw that my light was blinking green.  At the time I couldn't remember what that meant in terms of battery life so I figured I'd do the safe thing and call it a day.

Safely making my way back to my car I figured I'd stay in the city and go to a hangout bar/restaurant of mine.  I drove to the area and found parking a few blocks away.  I couldn't resist the urge to hop back on the wheel and zip to the bar.  The indicator light was, after all, blinking green not red, and it was only a few blocks.  I got there incident-free and enjoyed dinner and a beer.

A couple of friends showed up and the discussion turned to hopping over to another bar a few blocks over.  Speaking as casually and non-showoffy as I could, I said sure but I wasn't going to drink because, ahem, I'm riding my ELECTRIC UNICYCLE.  So of course I had to answer their questions and give a demo and after a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing one friend asks to see how fast it can go.  My willingness to oblige (showboat) was my downfall.

I rode to the end of the block and started to accelerate.  As I got to a decent speed (about 12mph) I decided to lean in and really push it.  So I accelerated even more and then a second later the motor just shut off.  The moment it happened I knew exactly what was going on, but I was helpless at that point and all I could do was brace myself as best as I could.  I went down.  Hard.

As I lay stunned on the sidewalk, my friends rushed over to help.  They asked if I was OK.  I replied with a groaning noise as I started to do a self assessment.  My left shoulder felt like Babe Ruth tried to knock it out of the park with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat.  On my face, my left cheekbone was throbbing fiercely and I could feel a slight scuff.  I said goodbye to a couple of patches of skin near both my elbows, with my left elbow feeling banged and swollen.  Nothing broken.

My friends helped me up and we brought the wheel (which survived the incident with only some scratches) back to my car.  They stayed with me to make sure I wasn't seriously hurt, then I finally made my way home where I went to town on ice packs, bandages, and over-the-counter painkiller meds.

Injuries sustained: bruised shoulder, bruised and swollen cheekbone, bruised elbow, skinned elbows

Lessons learned:  When you're new like me, being able to finally glide over the ground without being too anxious is a pretty euphoric feeling.  It gets addicting and you just want to do it all the time.  But you have to keep in mind how much charge is left in your battery!  If you're running low, don't push it!  The feeling you get when the wheel shuts down while your going at a decent speed is something you don't want to know.  It's like a combination of helplessness and panic and betrayal; I'm sure others who've gone through the same thing can attest that it's pretty bad.

Also, this incident just made me more mindful of practicing safe behavior overall:

  • wear safety equipment if you can help it
  • slow down! don't ride faster than your comfort level
  • be aware of your surroundings
  • you're not as good as you think you are; don't be cocky!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Daan Contributor

Daan

Posted
Posted

Ouch -- hope you will recover well.

‌@Jason McNeil: from the info at the IPS Zero thread, it seemed IPS has a dedicated BMS connected to the main board -- however, from this accident with the IPS 121 it seems that it is not working? i.e. that an IPS can still just shut-off?  As I am considering an IPS zero in the future it would be great to get clarity on the BMS issue B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kroy Enthusiast

Kroy

Posted
Posted

 

I rode to the end of the block and started to accelerate.  As I got to a decent speed (about 12mph) I decided to lean in and really push it.  So I accelerated even more and then a second later the motor just shut off.  The moment it happened I knew exactly what was going on, but I was helpless at that point and all I could do was brace myself as best as I could.  I went down.  Hard.

I've got the exact same story with my 132!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
johnc415 Contributor

johnc415

Posted
Posted

I was going to post this under the automatic shutoff thread but I think it would be useful to have a dedicated accident report thread for everybody's awareness.  Hopefully readers can learn from reported accidents and, if possible, avoid making the same decisions which led to them.  I encourage everybody to report their noteworthy accidents here so people can be more informed about the safety of electric unis.  Here's mine.

Location: Washington, DC

Electric Unicycle Model: IPS 121 122 (16", 260wh battery)

Battery level: I'm guessing 35% as there's no accurate level indicator.  The power light was blinking once a second which means that the battery is between 33% and 67% full.

Weather condition: Nice summer evening, 80 degrees F, no wind or rain

Visibility: Clear night time with ample street lighting

Road condition: Flat city sidewalk with plenty of room and no obstacles

Rider experience level: I'm still new. After learning to balance and comfortably navigate easy obstacles, I'd say I have between 10 to 15 miles of riding under my belt.

What happened: I had spent the afternoon practicing by riding to Fort Ward which is a park about a mile away from my place and then doing a few laps around then riding back.  I like the park for practicing because it's a small circuit with some speed bumps and some slight hills and a number of turns and there's usually a handful of people jogging or walking around to practice weaving and obstacle avoidance.

Afterwards I packed up my wheel into the car and made my way to Hains Point which is a spot in DC that's supposed to be popular for bicycling and rollerblading.  The circuit there is about three miles, and I went around it once.  Pretty boring because it's mostly straight down one side then straight back up the other side.

Needing something more exciting, I drove to the National Mall where all the tourists go see the Washington Monument and many of the popular museums of the Smithsonian Institution.  I parked and started riding up and down the Mall going from the Monument to the Capitol and back again on the other side of the Mall.  This was much more fun weaving through the throng of tourists, feeling sorry for all the poor suckers who couldn't smoothly glide along like me.  It was in the middle of this that I decided to check to see how my battery was doing and saw that my light was blinking green.  At the time I couldn't remember what that meant in terms of battery life so I figured I'd do the safe thing and call it a day.

Safely making my way back to my car I figured I'd stay in the city and go to a hangout bar/restaurant of mine.  I drove to the area and found parking a few blocks away.  I couldn't resist the urge to hop back on the wheel and zip to the bar.  The indicator light was, after all, blinking green not red, and it was only a few blocks.  I got there incident-free and enjoyed dinner and a beer.

A couple of friends showed up and the discussion turned to hopping over to another bar a few blocks over.  Speaking as casually and non-showoffy as I could, I said sure but I wasn't going to drink because, ahem, I'm riding my ELECTRIC UNICYCLE.  So of course I had to answer their questions and give a demo and after a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing one friend asks to see how fast it can go.  My willingness to oblige (showboat) was my downfall.

I rode to the end of the block and started to accelerate.  As I got to a decent speed (about 12mph) I decided to lean in and really push it.  So I accelerated even more and then a second later the motor just shut off.  The moment it happened I knew exactly what was going on, but I was helpless at that point and all I could do was brace myself as best as I could.  I went down.  Hard.

As I lay stunned on the sidewalk, my friends rushed over to help.  They asked if I was OK.  I replied with a groaning noise as I started to do a self assessment.  My left shoulder felt like Babe Ruth tried to knock it out of the park with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat.  On my face, my left cheekbone was throbbing fiercely and I could feel a slight scuff.  I said goodbye to a couple of patches of skin near both my elbows, with my left elbow feeling banged and swollen.  Nothing broken.

My friends helped me up and we brought the wheel (which survived the incident with only some scratches) back to my car.  They stayed with me to make sure I wasn't seriously hurt, then I finally made my way home where I went to town on ice packs, bandages, and over-the-counter painkiller meds.

Injuries sustained: bruised shoulder, bruised and swollen cheekbone, bruised elbow, skinned elbows

Lessons learned:  When you're new like me, being able to finally glide over the ground without being too anxious is a pretty euphoric feeling.  It gets addicting and you just want to do it all the time.  But you have to keep in mind how much charge is left in your battery!  If you're running low, don't push it!  The feeling you get when the wheel shuts down while your going at a decent speed is something you don't want to know.  It's like a combination of helplessness and panic and betrayal; I'm sure others who've gone through the same thing can attest that it's pretty bad.

Also, this incident just made me more mindful of practicing safe behavior overall:

  • wear safety equipment if you can help it
  • slow down! don't ride faster than your comfort level
  • be aware of your surroundings
  • you're not as good as you think you are; don't be cocky!

 

Richie, I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery. Falling and getting road rash is painful and especially worse cuz of the social embarrassment that came along with it. 

It's unfortunate that we need to even worry about the BMS shutoff issue at all and hopefully the manufacturers will right this wrong soon across the board.

that said, it seems you were aware of the risks of your wheel having the risk of shutting off yet u pushed it anyways at your novice level. Perhaps you didn't research thoroughly enough about the battery being a major factor in the shutoff. All in all, you were asking for it. Thankfully nobody else got hurt. Please practice safe behavior bc the wheel community will suffer together when poor decisions are made and others stand to suffer for our irresponsibility. I'm sorry if I come across like a prick but just saying what needs to be said

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jason McNeil Grand Master

Jason McNeil

Posted
Posted

It's a good write up: I think there's a lot of work to be done by distributors/mfgs in their training aids to show the limits of their eWheels. It's a thorny issue, because supposing IPS or Ninebot take a bunch of videos the Wheel cutting out during hard acceleration or hill climb, then that's the impression that could remain in the mind of prospective buyers. 

Hard acceleration is the Achilles heal of the 12x series IPS. This series has about 30% more torque than the Ninebot, but the cut-out under hard-acceleration is about 30% less.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...