Vail resident Adam Merriman died Wednesday after sustaining head accidents throughout an electric skateboard crash Tuesday.
A close-by pedestrian who heard the crash stated he suspects Merriman hit a joint in the pavement between the North Recreation Path and Red Sandstone Park in Vail.
An officer arriving on the scene stated he discovered the rear wheels severed from Merriman’s skateboard deck and described the joint in the pavement as “about 2 to 3 inches wide, with a depth of about 1 1/2 to 2 inches.”
Merriman is a legend in the native snowboarding neighborhood; a Slush Magazine story revealed Thursday describes him as “a snowboarding pioneer, an innovator and a patriarch of the Colorado snowboarding scene” who was featured on journal covers in the Nineties and designed K2’s game-changing “Fat Bob” snowboard.
Merriman was additionally an skilled skateboarder who was identified to take runs down the Vail Pass recreation path. He had simply acquired the electric skateboard the day earlier than the incident, in accordance with the report.
Officer Brad Porter stated it was a Halo Board Beast 2 electric skateboard.
“I observed one end of the board to be completely broken, with both wheels on this portion of the board to be broken and completely severed from the rest of the skateboard and skateboard’s deck,” Porter stated in his report. “These wheels were still attached to the board, connected by wires that led to the battery pack. I observed these severed wheels to be the driving wheels (mechanism) that powered or moved the skateboard.”
Merriman was touring eastbound on the North Recreation Path, which runs parallel to North Frontage Road in Vail. An individual strolling westbound stated he heard the crash and rendered assist.
The particular person “had observed a ‘dip’ in the bike path, at the intersection where the bike path intersected with the entrance to Red Sandstone Park,” in accordance with Porter’s report. “(The person) thought Merriman had crashed due to this dip in the pavement. (The person) had not witnessed the crash, only heard it and then turned to find Merriman on the ground.”
Another one that responded to the scene, the motive force of a automobile on the North Frontage Road, stated she thought Merriman momentarily left the bike path and traveled onto the gravel shoulder earlier than crashing onto the bike path. But Porter stated he noticed no marks in the gravel to point that.
“I observed the bike path that Merriman was traveling was a mild uphill grade as you traveled west to east (Merriman was traveling eastward),” Porter stated in his report. “I observed there to be a joint or connection at the intersection where the bike path and the entrance to the park met. This joint ran north to south the width of the bike path. I observed this joint to have similar dimensions as far as width and depth the entire length of it. This joint was about two to three inches wide, with a depth of about one and a half to two inches. This joint is the ‘dip’ that (the earwitness) had referenced. Just east of this joint is the portion of shoulder located on the north side of the bike path. I observed this area to be sand and gravel, with some grass portions. I did not observe any obvious marks or disturbance in the sand, gravel or grass that appeared to have been made by a skateboard wheel.”
Merriman’s dying will not be the primary high-profile electric skateboarding dying. In 2019, Detroit Tigers prospect Chace Numata died after his electric skateboard “suddenly stopped, as if it hit a rock, and he fell forward,” in accordance with police. Numata was a catcher for the Erie Seawolves, the Double A affiliate of the Tigers.
Merriman’s dying comes lower than a yr after the dying of Gypsum native Carl Bunnell, who died after crashing on a Onewheel electric board on Dec. 2, 2021.
A criticism in U.S. district court docket says Bunnell was on a flat, clean, asphalt-paved sidewalk when his Onewheel “suddenly nosedived while he was riding on the sidewalk, throwing him forward from the board.” Bunnell was sporting a helmet.
In May, U.S. Air Force Academy cadet Christopher Scott Ryong Adams died after fracturing his cranium throughout an electric skateboarding accident.
On Friday, Vail Communications Director Kris Widlak stated she’s not conscious of something being carried out to deal with the realm the place Merriman crashed.
“We do have people looking at the area as is typical after an incident,” Widlak stated in an e mail on Friday. “I have not yet heard any information on who owns or maintains that spot, or whether anything can or needs to be addressed.”