Peloton backs away from federal regulators’ request to remove the Tread + treadmill after the product was involved in the death of a child last month, the Washington Post reported Friday.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which initiated an investigation shortly after the incident, it plans to issue a new consumer safety warning as soon as this Saturday explaining the potential dangers posed by the Tread + Platoon, according to officials who spoke with the anonymity taker. Peloton would have been stopping these efforts, negotiating with regulators the wording and timing of a consumer alert and questioning whether full withdrawal is even justified.
Peloton, a billion-dollar exercise equipment manufacturer and multimedia company, was attacked last month after CEO and co-founder John Foley released a letter on the company’s website about the child’s death, calling it a “tragic accident”. He revealed that Peloton is aware of “a small handful of Tread +-related incidents where children have been injured” and reiterated product safety instructions, which warn users to keep children and pets away from the Peloton team “at all times.”
Earlier this week, regulators issued an administrative subpoena to force a fussy reaction to reveal information about the child who died while regulators continued their investigation into what exactly went wrong, officials said. Post sources said the CPSC has found “dozens” of incidents related to Peloton’s treadmills. These included reports of users experiencing injuries such as broken bones and head trauma after being trapped under the computer.
“This is not the case with other treadmills,” an official with knowledge of the case told the publication. “It’s a different danger pattern than you normally see.”
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As he points out Bloomberg, the CPSC received another troubling report on Tread + in February, when a 3-year-old boy suffered a “significant brain injury” after being pulled under the treadmill. When his father discovered him, the boy was not breathing and needed to be resuscitated, he said the report. The boy was also found with “tread marks on his back that match the straps of the treadmill, neck injuries and petechiae on his face, presumably from occlusion of blood flow.”
Depending on the number of accidents and the severity of the reported injuries, CPSC staff decided to recommend to Peloton to withdraw product safety, according to officials with whom the Post spoke.
However, Peloton disagrees, arguing that misuse is to blame for these incidents rather than product design.
Peloton “does not believe the withdrawal is necessary,” a company spokesman said in a statement to the Post, adding that the Tread + “is safe for use when the warnings and safety instructions are followed.” we provide “.
It should be noted that Peloton may also be fighting a retreat due to the timing, as andt The budget treadmill model is available for sale next month. Although the Tread + costs $ 4,295, this new model is priced at about half that $ 2,495. Issuing a safety withdrawal for one of your treadmills a few weeks before releasing another could provoke consumer confidence and negatively impact sales. (Viouslybviament, a company’s profits should never reach consumer safety, but hey, that’s it capitalism for you).
Peloton did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s query request, but we will be sure to update this blog when they do. A company spokesman provided the following statement to the Virgin:
We are disappointed that the CPSC is mis-characterizing the situation. Peloton Tread + is safe for home use when used as directed and in accordance with our warnings and safety instructions. As a reminder, Tread + is not for children under 16 and children, pets and objects should be kept away from Tread + at all times. Peloton is 100% committed to the safety of our members and we will always be open to working with the CPSC to implement impactful security measures. When Tread + is not in use, members should continue to follow safety instructions by storing the security key, which prevents the Tread + from working, away from the Tread + and out of the reach of children.
Tread + is not the first Peloton product with which users have reported some serious issues. Last year, the company issued a withdrawal of clip-in pedals which would break unexpectedly during use, causing lacerations and other injuries. The withdrawal affected approximately 27,000 motorcycles.