Sounds intentional to me. If you were on a runaway scooter about to go off the cliff, you could just jump off the scooter back onto the ground. Sure, you'd eat some dust, but you wouldn't die in a river.
It seems like it'd be pretty hard _not_ to do this even if you were trying not to do it. Something is definitely fishy here.
You can't infer anything "intentional" here. I imagine he was close to the edge and he let it get away from him for whatever reason. Maybe he slipped in some loose gravel or mud, or his dog blocked one of the wheels, or he simply wasn't paying attention. Those machines are deceptively easy to operate, but they are still machines and you pay dearly for your complacency. I have 5000+ miles experience on mine, and I still planted a facer last month (my own fault, not the seg's). All I can say is that it's a good damn thing I don't live on a cliff.
I have a Segway. I actually got it for my son and he rode it to school his senior year in high school and had a great time with it (he even got in the Wall Street Journal because of it).
After he got a girlfriend he was more interested in a car so I took the Segway to work and we had a lot of fun ridding it around the office.
After about a month or so, after the novelty had worn off, our CTO was riding it around when he had an accident. He was getting off it but left one foot on the platform and accidentally twisted the handle bar to one side. The Segway took off in a circle throwing him to the ground, nearly throwing him through a plate glass window and running over him.
Your reaction if you get off the thing wrong and it keeps going is to grab it by the handle and try to stop it. But it's heavy, the handlebar is the controller, and it has a lot of torque.
I don't think it's more dangerous than anything else (like a bicycle), but it works in a way that's different than anything else and after a while you get complacent only to get bitten by it.
We cannot know for sure. One commenter over on the article site brings up the point of a heart attack while driving.
Would (just like in any other vehicle, granted) cause a loss of control and might explain a great deal.
But again - we cannot know and shouldn't judge without more details, imo.
You're right of course, that's a possibility. I don't mean to be passing absolute judgment on the matter. Just saying there's got to be something more than "I accidentally drove off a cliff, sry", as the article seems to imply. I don't really understand why I'm losing karma at such a clip for it. :(
I don't see why there does have to be more to it. People make mistakes while driving vehicles all the time. How many of the recent Toyota crashes were caused by people stepping on the gas when they meant to step on the brake?
It seems like it'd be pretty hard _not_ to do this even if you were trying not to do it. Something is definitely fishy here.