“After months of excellent, round-the-clock work by our engineers, investigators and compliance officers, CPSC has secured the recall of more than a half million hoverboards by 10 different companies. This is a major recall that families and consumers across the country should respond to — immediately. Many of the industry’s major players, including Swagway and Razor, are offering refunds, repairs or replacement hoverboards, depending on the model.
Homes and apartments have been destroyed because of fires related to hazardous hoverboards. CPSC has investigated more than 60 hoverboard fires in more than 20 states that resulted in more than $2 million in property damage. To prevent another fire and possibly a death, I am urging consumers who have a recalled hoverboard to take advantage of this recall.
Visit CPSC.gov to check and see if your hoverboard has been recalled. If you have a hoverboard that is not part of this recall, contact the manufacturer or retailer and demand that they give you your money back.
Let me be clear about this — all of the hoverboard models included in this recall were made with fundamental design flaws that put people at real risk. They were made and sold without a safety standard in place. Two hazard patterns quickly developed. One involving falls, which could have been anticipated, and one involving fires, which definitely was not. Hoverboards that do not fully comply with the Underwriters Laboratories safety standard for these products are extremely dangerous and are a fire hazard waiting to happen. My message to the public was clear in February and continues to be clear today: Do not use a hoverboard that does not meet UL’s electrical safety requirements for these products (UL 2272).
I want to commend UL for developing testing requirements quickly that address the electrical system and battery pack problems in hoverboards, but there is still more work to do to address the fall hazard. These fall injuries are serious and I have spoken out for months about my concerns with the instability of certain self-balancing scooters.
I am pleased that ASTM International is hard at work in developing a stability standard. I continue to recommend the same safety gear that you would wear when riding a skateboard—a skateboard helmet, and knee and elbow pads and wrist guards for protection from falls. That goes for children and adults.
For your own safety, please respond to this hoverboard recall announcement right away.”