Urgent Warning on Hoverboards After Fatal Fire

The government has issued an urgent warning, advising consumers to immediately stop riding or charging LayZ Board hoverboards. According to an ABC News report, the LayZ Board hoverboards were not among the 500,000 hoverboards recalled last July. This warning comes after a fire in March when a LayZ Board that was pulled into an electrical outlet inside a home in Harrisburg, Pennyslvania, exploded and ignited a fire that killed two children – Ashanti Hughes, 2, and Savannah Dominick, 10. This was the first fatal fire directly related to an exploding hoverboard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has confirmed.

The agency is also looking into more than 100 nonfatal incidents in 39 states related to hoverboards manufactured by a variety of companies. More than 3,000 LayZ Boards have been imported into the U.S. from China. Typically, the CPSC would work with the company to issue the recall. However, in this case, CPSC has been unable to do that because the China-based manufacturer is refusing to cooperate with the government. CPSC officials are warning that the fire risk with this product is serious. Consumers are asked to immediately stop using and stop charging the LayZ Board.

Why Are Hoverboards So Dangerous?

In July, the CPSC recalled more than half a million hoverboards from popular brands like Swagway and Razor. But, even then, CPSC officials made it clear that there are potentially many dangerous hoverboards in homes across the U.S. and urged consumers to act. So, why are these hoverboards exploding?

According to researchers, the problem doesn’t lie with the hoverboards themselves, but rather the quality of the lithium-ion batteries used in the devices. There are a number of factories in China that now make these lithium-ion batteries and the reality is that the quality and consistency of these batteries is not as good as what we find in top-tier producers. Such batteries, often made with substandard parts, are known as “low cost li-ion batteries” by most in the industry. These are not exactly knock-offs or copies, but are mass-manufactured cells that have been subjected to little or no quality control.

If You Have Been Injured

If you or a loved one has been injured in a hoverboard-related accident, you may be able to seek and obtain compensation for damages including medical expenses, lost wages, hospitalization, pain and suffering and emotional distress. It would also be in your best interest to contact an experienced product defect attorney who will fight for your rights and help hold the at-fault parties accountable.