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2007 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
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A down-hill struggle

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Okay, true story from the shop where I work:

First off, I should explain that the shop sells equipment for disabled people, including 4-wheel electric scooters of various sizes, right up to the road-legal 8mp/h variety, and we also have two in-house engineers that can repair most scooters.

End of last week, the owner (who's also one of the engineers) brings in a scooter that looks like it's been through a destruction derby: the frame was bent, the front casing cracked, wheels bent out of position and the tiller arm almost snapped off. We all looked at it for a moment, before asking the obvious question; what the hell happened?

It transpires that the owner hadn't used or charged the scooter for some time, and the batteries were thus dead, unable to hold a charge. Rather than spend maybe £100 on a new pair of batteries, the owner had a brain wave: jump-start the motor by pushing the scooter down hill in free-wheel (the motor disengaged, normally used to park a scooter or more it around by hand), then when it's up to speed, pull the lever to re-engage the drive.

So down the hill they go on a scooter with no brakes, until they reach what they think is a reasonable speed, and then pull the lever. The electric motor re-engages with the drive and acts like a handbrake, stopping it dead in its tracks. The hapless owner/driver was propelled over the controls, bending the tiller arm, and into the street. This imparted the scooter with enough force to tip up on its front, cracking the front casing and snapping the baring holding the front wheels. It then landed on top of its owner, bending the frame and badly injuring them, earning them a bed in the local hospital.

The moral of this story is this: you can't bump-start an electric motor.

Submitted on 07/23/2007

Submitted by: Jeff Baker
Reference:

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

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Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
What I want to know is why this person thought that "starting" the scooter this way would do anything if the battery couldn't even hold a charge the old-fashioned way. This sounds like classic Wily E. Coyote behavior! Thanks for sharing this with us, Jeff.


Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Jeff, thanks for the story! Very funny! I guess the person said "Hey, you can push-start a car, why not an electric scooter?" Duh!


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