“He made light of everything:” 22-year-old dies after electric skateboard accident in Baraboo, family asking for support | Top Stories | wkow.com

Digital Content Producer

Enjoyiana Nururdin, M.A. "on-jee-ahna nerd-een" joinedWKOW as a Digital Content Producer in March 2024. She is originallyfrom Madison, where she attended La Follette High School and theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison for her Bachelor of Arts inReporting.At UW-Madison, she served as the ManagingEditor for The Black Voice, a Black-student-led online publication,and as the Student Representative for the National Association ofBlack Journalists. Enjoyiana was also a food reporter for TheCapital Times, featuring local eateries near Madison's campus. Shebecame fascinated with coverage of the 2020 Presidential Electionand decided to continue her education in political science andmedia studies. After graduating from UW, Enjoyianapursued her Master of Arts in Political Journalism from ColumbiaUniversity in the City of New York. Her master's thesis highlightedmutual aid efforts in food security and activism in Black and Browncommunities.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/melvin-hubbard-after-tragic-skateboarding-accident

A 22-year-old man died after an electric skateboard accident last weekend near Spirit Point, Wisconsin. His family is asking for support from the community to lay him to rest and wants to raise awareness about how he died.

MADISON, Wis. (WKOW) -- A 22-year-old man died after an electric skateboard accident last weekend near Spirit Point, Wisconsin. His family is asking for support from the community to lay him to rest and wants to raise awareness about how he died.

Courtesy: Alesha Simmons

Melvin Hubbard was described as loving, sweet, dependable, and a ball of joy by his mother. He loved all of his siblings, and was a big part of the close-knit family of seven. He just turned 22 last month, and had been living on his own in Madison since last year when he left his family who had moved to Texas.

Alesha Simmons was in San Antonio, TX when she got a call from her daughter around midnight Saturday morning. Family members were trying to get in contact with her, and her older brother was on his way to a hospital back in Dane County across the country. She grabbed her younger children and got them dressed and ready to go. Alesha’s son had been hurt badly in an accident in Wisconsin.

At 10:09 p.m. on Friday, September 13, emergency personnel were dispatched to Mill Race Drive in Baraboo for a man who was longboarding with an electric skateboard without a helmet. The male, identified as Melvin Hubbard, came to Baraboo with someone he met from work a few months ago to try and buy a longboard from some individuals. Neither of them knew much about him, except for the fact that his first name was Melvin.

Melvin graduated from La Follette High School in 2021. Alesha described her son as courageous. He didn’t like school as much, but he was very proud of himself when he finished.

“He pushed through and he never gave up,” she said.

She said Melvin thought he was funny, and that he had a great sense of humor. She said he made light out of everything.

“Melvin will find something positive out of something negative and try to turn it around,” Alesha said. “He didn’t like for you to be around him down, so he tried to uplift you.”

Courtesy: Alesha Simmons

Melvin loved the color red and he loved anime. He also loved skateboards, scooters, and fixing cars– anything with a motor really. She told me he took after his father, Melvin Sr. who does mechanic work. Melvin Jr. would offer to change his mother’s oil or the brakes for her (without taking the class yet!) all the time when he was younger. For his 18th birthday, his mom gifted Melvin a motorbike.

“That was his toy!” Simmons said. “He took it apart and put it back together. He was so hands on.”

Alesha recalled when Melvin decided he wanted to cut grass when he was 12 years old because he wanted money to buy shoes. He started a landscaping business and handed out copies and copies of flyers near his childhood home on Bettys Lane in Madison.

“People started calling my son to come cut their grass,” Simmons said. “Melvin would go walking and he would bring his younger cousin with him, too. He did a really good job at it.”

Alesha described Melvin as a hard worker and as well mannered. This was also evident in his job at AprilAire where his coworkers lauded him for being able to “run the assembly line.” She said this was the first job Melvin actually loved, that he liked all of his coworkers, and that she was really proud of him.

Courtesy: Alesha Simmons

“They love for Melvin to run that line because they’ll get done with the job,” she said. “He said ‘Mama, I can do this. I can do this! I’m putting these pieces together and it’s nothing to it. I be running the line and when they hold me up, I tell them get out the way, and I do it.’”

“Melvin was very adamant about doing things himself,” Simmons added. “He wanted to live his life, and that’s what he did.”

On the day of the accident, Melvin wanted to test the Meepo Electric Skateboard out, according to the police report.

Baraboo Police Department Officer Maxwell O’Brien said Melvin was going approximately 20-25 miles an hour on the longboard when he lost control and fell. Witnesses said they told him to slow down before he wiped out on the longboard. The incident report stated he fell hard and hit his head on the cement while skidding 20-25 feet out.

EMS was on the scene and putting Melvin on the medical board when Baraboo PD officers arrived and assisted EMS by lifting him onto the stretcher. EMS then took Melvin to St. Clare Hospital, where a Medflight was requested to take him to UW Hospital. It’s an hour-long drive by car from Baraboo to Madison.

Alesha and her family drove all day for nearly 20 hours and didn’t make it to Wisconsin until 7:48 p.m. Saturday night. They arrived at a hospital room full of family members gathered around an unconscious Melvin. The doctor explained to Alesha that Melvin hit his head and that there wasn’t any brain activity.

Melvin was kept on life support until Monday, September 16.

An autopsy is underway. The incident report doesn’t point to any indication of foul play.

Melvin is survived by his mother Alesha, his father Melvin Sr., his older sister, his three younger brothers, and two younger sisters.

“We’re gonna miss him,” Simmons said. “He loved all of his siblings. He had a different relationship with each and every one of them. You could speak to anybody about Melvin Hubbard and we won’t find a soul in this world to tell you anything bad about Melvin.”

Courtesy: Alesha Simmons

If anybody could say anything, it would be that he loved an adventure.

“He was very, very adventurous,” Simmons said. “When he took off on that longboard, it’s probably because he had never been on a board like that.” She said he expressed feeling elated when riding the motorbike she got him for his birthday.

“Mom, when I ride it, I just feel free,” Melvin told his mother.

Click the link to donate to the GoFundMe for Melvin Hubbard.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/melvin-hubbard-after-tragic-skateboarding-accident?lang=en_US&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

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Digital Content Producer

Enjoyiana Nururdin, M.A. "on-jee-ahna nerd-een" joinedWKOW as a Digital Content Producer in March 2024. She is originallyfrom Madison, where she attended La Follette High School and theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison for her Bachelor of Arts inReporting.At UW-Madison, she served as the ManagingEditor for The Black Voice, a Black-student-led online publication,and as the Student Representative for the National Association ofBlack Journalists. Enjoyiana was also a food reporter for TheCapital Times, featuring local eateries near Madison's campus. Shebecame fascinated with coverage of the 2020 Presidential Electionand decided to continue her education in political science andmedia studies. After graduating from UW, Enjoyianapursued her Master of Arts in Political Journalism from ColumbiaUniversity in the City of New York. Her master's thesis highlightedmutual aid efforts in food security and activism in Black and Browncommunities.