Treadmill manufacturer Peloton recently acknowledged that one of its Peloton+ treadmills was involved in the death of a three-year-old child. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has publicly announced that it is conducting an investigation of this fatal incident involving a three-year old child who was found trapped beneath a Peloton+ treadmill. Peloton also announced it was aware of “a small handful of incidents” involving injuries to children caused by its Tread+ treadmill.
The CPSC has advised that there were an estimated 22,500 injuries due to treadmills in the year 2019 alone. In that same year, 68,000 people were treated in American emergency room facilities for accidents involving or caused by treadmills. Approximately 2,000 of these injuries were suffered by children less than eight years old. The CPSC has further advised that between 2018 and 2020, there were 17 deaths related to treadmills, including the death of a five-year-old child.
A 2020 study from The American Journal of Emergency Medicine found that most at-home treadmill injuries occurred in children under 16 and that the coronavirus pandemic presented a unique risk for injuries as more adults were working from home and children were taking part in remote learning. Common injuries, the study found, included damage to the hands and fingers, such as friction burns or degloving, where part of the skin tissue detaches from underlying muscle.
If you or someone you know has been injured as the result of a Peloton treadmill or other treadmill device, please contact an attorney at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling [nap_phone id=”LOCAL-CT-NUMBER-6″]4 or toll free at [nap_phone id=”TOLL-FREE-CT-NUMBER-5″].