The part nobody caught on video

Part of the Segway tour nobody filmed – and we will never stop talking about

9:14 a.m. March 24, 2026

KATIE EVANS
MCHS Senior

There are two videos from the Segway tour.

The first one shows Rileigh Brē standing there before we even started – helmet on, vest on, smiling, but not really smiling. You can tell she is nervous. She literally says she is scared to ride the Segway, and at the time, we were all kind of laughing.

Looking back, she had every right to be.

The second video is after everything happened. She is sitting in the grass, a little shaken up, but laughing some, too, and trying to figure out what we all just witnessed.

What we do not have is the part in the middle.

Unfortunately, that is the part none of us will ever forget.

At first, the Segway ride seemed simple enough. You lean forward, and it goes. You lean back, and it stops. That sounds easy until you actually get on one and realize it is a little more complicated than that.

For the first few minutes, everything was mostly fine. A little awkward, maybe, but fine.

Then things got interesting.

At one point, Rileigh Brē ran over our classmate Whitney. That might sound bad, but somehow it still was not the most dramatic part of the ride.

Rileigh Brē and I were the last two in the group in a single-file line. I was picking up speed a little, just hoping she was catching up behind me, when I heard a loud yell.

I looked back and saw that she was nowhere near the sidewalk.

And this was not a narrow path, either. The sidewalk was about 6 feet wide.

At some point, she had lost control – not a small wobble, not a quick correction, but fully lost control.

Then she just took off.

Into the grass. Away from the group. Far away from the group.

It happened so fast, but it also felt like it lasted forever.

I slowed down and looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. They had not. The front of the line kept moving like everything was perfectly normal, while behind them, Rileigh Brē was weaving through the grass, somehow missing every tree in sight.

She got way farther away than I would have thought possible in just a few seconds. It had to be at least 30 yards.

And the whole time, it honestly looked like the Segway was driving her, not the other way around.

There was a moment where you could tell she realized she was not stopping.

And I think that was the moment the Segway decided to launch her.

She went fully over the handlebars – legs up and everything – and tumbled into the grass.

By then, only a couple of other people had noticed. The front of the line was still completely oblivious to what had just happened.

Then the tour guide realized she was down and started sprinting toward her.

When he got there, Rileigh Brē was sitting in the grass, a little stunned but still OK.

Then she started laughing.

And once she started laughing, the rest of us lost it.

It was the kind of laughing where you cannot breathe, and you are trying to talk, but nothing comes out right. Carter finally managed to say, “Well, I guess she wanted to take a detour.”

That did not help.

Mrs. Hise rolled up to find Rileigh Brē sitting in the middle of a random grassy area, nowhere close to where she was supposed to be.

Looking back, Mrs. Hise said it was one of those moments where you wish you had it on video – but also one that probably would not have translated the same way on screen.

She is probably right.

What those two clips do not show is the panic, the yelling, the way Rileigh Brē somehow avoided every tree in her path, and the fact that she stayed on that Segway far longer than anyone would have expected.

The first video shows the nerves before the ride.

The second shows the laughter after it was over.

What happened in between was the part nobody caught on camera – and the part none of us will ever forget.