Here’s some further proof that tourists and Segways in D.C. can be a dangerous combination.
A New York woman was ejected from her erratic Segway while on a guided tour of D.C.’s tourist attractions, according to a suit filed in U.S. District Court for D.C. Thursday against Bike and Roll Washington D.C. The suit states that Jordana Casciano was on a Bike and Roll tour in October 2013, rolling on a Segway Personal Transporter named “Millie.”
Casciano was taking in the sites near the U.S. Botanic Garden with her husband when her Segway started to reverse and spin violently without command, crashing into the cement sidewalk and causing her to be ejected.
“Plaintiff JORDANA CASCIANO was riding experienced a control malfunction causing a large excursion from controlled operation and loss of control, each of which caused it to accelerate backward unexpectedly without command, spin violently, and crash into the cement sidewalk surface, which resulted in her being violently ejected from the Segway PT and thrown to the ground in the vicinity of the United States Botanic Garden located in Washington, D.C,” the suit states.
According to the suit, the crash wasn’t Casciano’s fault. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had recalled the Segway PT in 2006 because it had “unexpectedly applied reverse torque to the wheels, which has caused riders to fall.”
Casciano says no one at Bike and Roll warned her about the possible defect or told her how to react if it happened while she was on the Segway.
She says she suffered severe and permanent physical and psychological injuries, including bone fractures, scaring, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Casciano is suing for at least $5 million.
Bike and Roll managing partner Stephen Marks writes in an email to City Desk that he doesn’t think the company has been served with a suit yet, but says that Bike and Roll “put the Segway that Ms Cacione was riding through a series of tests and it performed fine.”
Read the suit below:
[documentcloud url=”https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1279093-segwaylawsuit.html”]
Photo by Darrow Montgomery