Segway scooters seem to be invading every aspect of modern life. The Segway now catches criminals in down town Chicago and I even saw one in Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. But what about a Segway working for your local bomb disposal unit?

The news that the San Luis bomb disposal unit has purchased a Segway has sparked off controversy. One commentator was highly annoyed that the money was being wasted:

“Just how many actual bombs have the bomb squad found and diffused since the bomb squad was trained, anyhow? And just how many folks have died in the community while these guys are being trained (sent to be trained WHERE?).

It’s sickening. In the old days, before we sent all the money to the feds and the state, there was some control over the way the departments spent our money. There is now no public accountability. these folks spend a fortune (to us, not them) just going to grant writing seminars. Their objective then are to run around looking for where the money is and then finding a way to get it.”

But Ja thought that everyone had a total lack of information and argued that using Segways was a good idea:

“The bomb squad had to use technical expertise to dispose of that without killing anyone — including the owners of the barn. There are innumerable times it is called out because someone finds old WWII ordinance stored in a garage, or someone has a whole bunch of illegal fireworks, or someone finds pipe bombs either left under a car (which was in The Trib several years ago), or a, fortunately, device left on the porch of a local investigator for the county that the bomb squad had to determine if it was lethal or not, which was also reported in The T.”

What do you think? Are Segways a waste of money? or do they offer value to our emergency services?