CPSC Warns About Floatwheel Accident Risks, Indicating Electric Skateboard May Suddenly Stop and Nosedive

Federal safety officials are warning consumers not to use or buy Floatwheel self-balancing electric skateboards, due to a risk of accidents and injuries that may result from the devices stopping suddenly and nosediving, echoing similar warnings issued in recent months about problems with the more popular OneWheel skateboards.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued the Floatwheel safety warning on May 2, indicating the self-balancing electric skateboards can throw riders off, creating a fall and crash injury hazard. The commission issued the warning after the manufacturer, based in China, refused to issue a Floatwheel recall or supply the CPSC with information about the product.

Floatwheel’s design, and reported problems, are very similar to those involving Onewheel electric self-balancing skateboards, which have been linked to a growing number of nosedive accidents and personal injury lawsuits in recent years.

Onewheel Safety Problems

The Onewheel electric skateboards feature a similar design to the FloatWheel, with a self-balancing board that allows riders to travel at speeds of about 20 miles per hour. However, the OneWheel has been plagued by design problems linked to a “pushback” feature added by the designers, which is supposed to give the rider physical resistance when the scooter is reaching its operational limit.

Some reports indicate that instead of riders just experiencing a little resistance, which could already upset their balance, sometimes the Onewheel stops suddenly, causing the nose to pitch down into ground, which is commonly referred to as a “nosedive”.

Those problems have resulted in recalls and Onewheel accident lawsuits against that manufacturer, indicating that design flaws make the electric skateboard unreasonably dangerous and defective.

In September, the CPSC announced a Onewheel recall, affecting about 300,000 devices due to the nosedive problems. At the time of the recall Future Motion, the manufacturer, indicated it had received dozens of reports of injuries, including traumatic brain injury, concussions, paralysis, upper-body fractures, lower-body fractures and other injuries, including four reported deaths between 2019 and 2021. All of the deaths were linked to head trauma caused by Onewheel accidents. In three of those cases, riders were not wearing a helmet.

According to the CPSC, the same or similar problems plague the Floatwheel as well.

“CPSC evaluated the Floatwheel products and found that they can suddenly stop or stop balancing the user, which can throw a rider off the board, posing fall and crash hazards that can be life threatening. CPSC is aware of multiple reports on social media sites of incidents involving the Floatwheel ejecting riders, including consumers reporting injuries,” the CPSC warning states. “Because Floatwheel refused to cooperate with CPSC’s investigation, the total number of incidents, injuries and/or fatalities associated with the product are presently unknown, and CPSC has been unable to investigate any reported incidents.”

The CPSC urges consumers to immediately stop using or buying all Floatwheel models, including the Floatwheel Advance and Floatwheel Advance Pro. They have been sold to consumers since 2020, and the CPSC indicates they are currently being sold from a Russian website for between $1,600 and $1,800.

However, the CPSC indicates that imports of the Floatwheel may be subject to enforcement action at U.S. ports to prevent the devices from entering the country.

Accidents linked to the use of the Floatwheel can be reported to www.SaferProducts.gov.

May 2024 Onewheel Lawsuit Update

Since reports of problems and accidents with OneWheel skateboards began to emerge in recent years, the manufacturers of that device have faced more than 50 lawsuits filed by consumers who often suffered severe injuries when they were hurled unexpectedly from their skateboards to the ground.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in complaints filed throughout the federal court system, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided late last year to consolidate Onewheel accident lawsuits as part of an MDL before U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in the Northern District of California, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Last month, Judge Freeman scheduled a series of settlement conferences throughout the summer, in hopes of reaching an early resolution without the need for trials.

If the litigation can not be resolved early in the pretrial proceedings, it is likely that Judge Freeman will move forward with a bellwether process, where a small group of representative claims will be prepared for a series of test trials, to help the parties gauge how jurors are likely to respond to expert testimony and evidence likely to be repeated throughout the Onewheel lawsuits.