Oct 7, 2008 7:24 pm US/Eastern
WWII Vet Fights To Keep Personal "Transporter"
Condo board wants to put the breaks on two-wheeled device
Gary Nelson
SUNRISE (CBS4) ―
Stanley Blumenthal took his Segway Personal Transporter for a spin around his condo complex Tuesday. It will be on of his last rides on the two-wheeled device if the condominium's board of directors has its way.
"They call themselves the board of directors," Blumenthal said in an interview with
CBS4 Reporter Gary Nelson. "I call them the board of dictators."
When Blumenthal got his one-person set of wheels two years ago, the condo's board wrote a rule banning the device. It zips along on two wheels as the operator stands on it upright.
Members of the Sunrise Lakes Condominium board think Blumenthal is a hazard as he darts to and from the grocery store, the doctor, and to visit friends in the complex.
Tuesday, the clash over his contraption went before a state arbitrator, who held a hearing at the condo's activity building.
"We feel that he's a danger to the people that live here," board member Al Smith told CBS4's Nelson. "He can be coming around the corner and run you over with that 100 pound vehicle. I just think it's a danger to everyone here."
Resident Audrey Paul told the arbitrator that Blumenthal nearly ran into her on his Segway as she sat on a bench in a hallway. "I had to move my legs out of the way real quick," Paul said.
Blumenthal said he only operates the Segway on the streets of the complex. He said he stopped using it in hallways and common areas and to visit his girlfriend in another building, in an effort to compromise with the board.
Blumenthal's girlfriend has no complaints about the gadget. "I don't think people should bother other people who are doing something that's not harmful," Florence Cohen told Nelson.
Blumenthal points out that golf carts are permitted to scoot around the condo complex, as are people in motorized wheel chairs, bicyclists and riding lawnmowers.
"I've never had an accident," he said. "I've never hit anybody, never hurt anybody." He argues that his electric-powered ride is environmentally friendly and gives him independence. "It's a quality of life thing," he said. "I'm trying to enjoy life at 83, the pursuit of happiness. Why should I give up the pursuit of happiness?"
Blumenthal says the condo board members are fuddy-duddies. "Party poopers, raining on my parade!" he told Nelson.
The state arbitrator hearing the Segway squabble is expected to issue his ruling within fifteen days.
If he loses, Blumenthal says he may appeal, but needs a lawyer. The World War II vet represented himself at Tuesday's arbitration hearing. The condo board had a paid lawyer.
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