Throwing a power wheelchair

We'll never know what happened or why.  We didn't even take any good "after" pictures, let alone any "before" pictures.  After all, we didn't know it was going to happen.  Nor did we ask for any of the parts that were replaced during the repair.

We had gotten quite complacent about carrying my scooter and power chair around on the back of the Highlander.  We were being very careful about putting the ramp down too fast or too far because that supposedly caused the last bent Swing-Away.  And I thought we were being pretty careful about always putting the safety pin into the SwingAway whenever the SUV was moving, let alone carrying equipment.

Carolyn had loaded the power chair on the carrier leaving me to park my walker and inch into the passenger seat.  The only thing on my mind as we rounded the corner of Max and North heading toward Garfield was that we were going a little faster than I like when we hit the speed bump there.  I braced for the jostle which didn't surprise me.  But I wasn't prepared for the afterswing.   It felt like we had lost the shock absorbers on the rear of the Highlander.

Carolyn slowed the car without slamming on the brakes.  I looked out my window into the rear view mirror, surprised at seeing my power chair swinging out past the corner of the car.  That was not a good sign.  We drove past another house or two  until we could find a safe place to park and attempt to fix whatever the problem was.

The Swing-Away is held in place by a spring-loaded retention pin and a safety pin that is held in by a ball bearing we had lost some time ago.  Both pins were lying useless somewhere on the side of the road.  Fortunately, the power chair was still strapped tightly to the carrier.  It had hit nothing nor been hit by anything.  As we swung it back into place it was instantly obvious what the damage had been.  The top bar of the Swing-Away was twisted, probably less than 15 or 20 degrees, but enough that it wouldn't seat back so the pins could be inserted.  We couldn't close the Swing-Away or keep it close to closed.

Fortunately, we were less than a 5 minute walk from our house.  We dismounted the chair from the carrier and verified that it indeed had not been hurt.  Carolyn walked home to get a couple of bungee cords to hold the SwingAway in the closed position.  I wheeled home.  Our plans were somewhat altered for the evening.

It cost $500 for that little repair job.  And we'll never know.   Did the safety pin fall out.?  How could the carrier shear off the spring loaded pin?  Was it primarily the force of the speed bump?  I guess we'll never know.