A motorized wheelchair kill switch for improving the safety of motorized wheelchairs is described. The motorized wheelchair kill switch includes a photoelectric sending unit and a photoelectric receiving unit that are used to kill the operation of a wheelchair joystick. The photoelectric sending unit emits a light beam toward the photoelectric receiving unit along a path that will be broken if a user is safely seated in the wheelchair. If the light beam is detected a determination is made that the user is not properly seated. In that case the joystick operation is disabled, locking the wheelchair motor and preventing accidental movement.
