NEWS: Heelys Hurt

CULTURE: Heelys Hurt

The official Heely brand advertises the slogan “Freedom is a wheel in your sole,” but for a 12-year-old from East Bridgewater, MA, who paid the ultimate price for said "freedom," the shoes are being linked to a fatal accident. Ryan Carmichael was wearing his Heelys while crossing the street to pick up the mail prior to school this morning when he was hit by an oncoming driver, a 44-year-old woman who has been identified as Susan Smith. Police are currently investigating whether Carmichael's footwear is a potential culprit in his death. According to The Boston Globe, due to safety concerns, the shoes have been banned in many schools across the country. In fact, a little over a week ago CBS News ran a segment on the shoes warning people (parents in particular) of their potential safety hazards. When questioned by CBS, Heelys exec Charlie Beery released the following precaution:

I'm not seeing the connection. Was he heeling across the street and if he was, would the outcome have been any different if he were actually walking?

Edit: Strike that litigious comment. I thought I read something about a lawsuit.

[Edited on Mar 14, 2006 10:40PM]

What the hell is heeling?

Is this like a New York/LA thing that us midwesterners think is ridiculous?

Way to take one small (and possibly insignificant) detail and make it the story. With spin like that why are wasting your time here BETH_GOTTFRIED; go pursue the career in politics that you are destined for.

[Edited on Mar 14, 2006 2:24PM]

[Edited on Mar 14, 2006 3:25PM]

How is this news? Kid crosses road, gets hit by car, very sad. Brand of shoes, wheels or wheel-less, is irrelavant. If he'd been wearing rollerskates would the rollerskate manufacturer get sued? Or if he'd had on a pair of Nikes, say, is it Nikes' fault?

Edited because I can't spell.

[Edited on Mar 14, 2006 10:58PM]

Let the record show that the Boston Globe put the fucked-up not-shoe in the headline first.

And, Jesus, where's the vitriol coming from? I mean, are you now going to send the same sentiments to John R. Ellement (ellement@globe.com) of the Globe, or do you just like being abrasive when using a fictional identity?

Um...I don't subscribe to the Boston Globe so I don't really have an interest in what they print but since I do subscribe to SG I have gotten used to reading a better quality of article. There is no evidence in the article that his shoe/skates had anything to do with it; bad journalism by one person doesn't excuse it in another as far as I'm concerned. And as far as the fictional ID goes Mr. Mezzabotta; my name's Harold what's yours?

[Edited on Mar 14, 2006 3:24PM]

play nice.

I agree. You always see these parents on the news... "I never thought it would happen it me..."

Whether it be a toddler drowning in an unintended pool, or the parent who leaves their infant in a car in August, or this...

The only thing I see crashing and burning is this company's stock.

Actually I did read the article, that's how I knew there is no initial evidence to suggest that his shoes were to blame and that an obstruction to the driver's field of vision caused by a telephone pole and a road sign might have been a more likely cause of the accident. That however would have been hard to work into a clever alliterative headline.

You know when you getting old, when you never heard of the lastest trend.

Is this going to be another lawsuit for not using common sense?

I find this an interesting news story. I see about 1,000 kids wearing those damn things everyday, and I clicked on the link because I recognized the product. If people don't think it's a news story, just stop reading it. No need to drag the original poster through the mud....

yeah, why was this kid "heeling" through traffic?
don 't parents teach kids not to play in the street anymore?
oh, and you guys need to smoke some weed and chill out

Not sure about the 'thinking it's ridiculous' part, but midwesterners certainly buy and wear them. The first place I ever saw a kid with a pair was Cedar Point (in that most Midwestern of towns, San-f'in-dusky, OH) back about four years ago. And he'd obviously had them long enough to be quite proficient with them.

Zipped around in and out of crowds a lot, swerving and spinning - exactly the sort of thing you don't really want to be doing on a road with no sidewalks, going to a mailbox only three feet from traffic.

I only see these things when I'm buying groceries at Costco. Always throws me when a kid whose legs aren't moving starts gliding across the floor. The first time I saw it it really threw me for a loop.

... aw snap.