At least two families are suing Pelotons for injuries that the lawsuits claim occurred on Peloton treadmills.
On July 1, Sarah and Ygal Saadoun sued Peloton in New York State Supreme Court, Kings County, claiming their three-year-old son was injured after becoming trapped under a Peloton Tread+ while the family was at a house of a friend. The child suffered third-degree burns on his back and sides. The child, identified as SS in the lawsuit, has experienced “shock and emotional distress” in addition to a two-month recovery process, according to the lawsuit, which states the incident occurred on July 5, 2020.
The lawsuit alleges that Peloton should have known that its product was “extremely and unreasonably dangerous, hazardous, and not reasonably safe for its intended purposes and foreseeable uses.”
Peloton said in a statement to the New York Post: “We are currently reviewing this complaint. We care deeply about the safety of our community at Peloton and take each and every incident report seriously.
This is not the first family suing Peloton. On May 25, Rashad Greene and Jasmine Greene filed a complaint against Peloton in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Florida alleging that their six-year-old son, identified in the lawsuit as RG, was dragged under the Peloton Tread, resulting in burns to his shoulder and face. He has discoloration and scarring to his face, and he suffers from mental and emotional trauma, according to the lawsuit.
The suit, which demands a trial by jury, also says that the Peloton Tread and Tread+ “contain significant design flaws that make them defective, unfit for use in a home with children, and unreasonably dangerous for their intended purpose—namely, because the design is extremely susceptible to children (and pets) getting trapped underneath the machine while it is operating.”
The lawsuit contends that the treadmills “have a large space under the belt of the machine—and no safety bar, belt guard, or other safety feature that could prevent a child (or pet) from being sucked underneath the machine while in use.”
In May, Peloton issued a recall of its Tread+ and Tread treadmills after calls to do so by the Consumer Product Safety Commission due to 72 reports of adult users, children, pets and objects being pulled under the rear of the treadmills. Twenty-nine of the reports were of injuries to children, and one death of a six-year-old child was reported.
Several law firms also are seeking class action suits against Peloton. A consumer class action suit, Albright v. Peloton Interactive, Inc., filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on April 20, alleges that Peloton’s advertisements using pictures of a woman with a young girl indicated to consumers that the product was safe to use around children. However, the lawsuit alleges that because of the injuries to children, the product has a design flaw that makes it unsafe to be used around children.
The lawsuit, which was brought by Shannon Albright, asks for either a refund or replacement of the device with one that is safe to be used around children and pets.
A second lawsuit, Wilson v. Peloton Interactive Inc., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on April 29 on behalf of investors. It alleges that Peloton failed to tell investors that its Tread+ product could injure or kill children and pets. The lawsuit also names as defendants CEO John Foley and Chief Financial Officer Jill Woodworth.
Treadmills account for 35 percent of exercise equipment-related injuries, according to an analysis of emergency room data from 2011-2020 collected by law firm Seidman Margulis & Fairman LLP and detailed in a report from the firm. Twenty-two percent of those injuries involved children who were younger than 10 years old. Emergency room visits from treadmill injuries numbered 5,982 during the time of the study. In comparison, injuries sustained on stationary bikes totaled 1,768 while bench presses caused 917 injuries requiring an emergency room visit. Other exercise equipment looked at included ellipticals (588), rowing machines (223) and stair steppers (109).