A helpless 3-year-old boy was sucked beneath a moving Peloton treadmill in a horrifying mishap last year, suffering third-degree burns and lasting emotional trauma before he was rescued, his parents charged Thursday in a Brooklyn court filing.
The Brooklyn toddler was dragged under the running treadmill on July 5, 2020, with the terrified child suffering burns to his back and sides as he became trapped while the exercise device kept moving, said attorneys for the child’s parents Sarah and Ygal Saadoun.
“The filing of this lawsuit is the first step toward getting justice for this adorable child and his family, and holding Peloton accountable for selling a dangerous product that has harmed children,” said lawyer Jordan Merson.
The family sought unspecified legal damages and charged Peloton “did not weigh the danger inherent” in marketing the treadmill. The company initially pushed back when confronted this past April about the perils of its treadmill, dismissing a warning issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as “inaccurate and misleading.”
The complaint filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court came just two months after Peloton recalled some 125,000 of its treadmills after receiving 72 reports of people, pets or other household items pulled beneath the rear of the training device — including 29 kids, with one fatally injured.
The company also pulled all the pricey treadmills off the market while offering refunds on the $4,000 fitness machines. Some of the injured children suffered cuts or broken bones, and a 6-year-old was killed.
The Saadouns allege Peloton knew or should have known about the dangers posed by the treadmill and “never should have sold it to the public,” according to court papers.
The young victim, identified only as “S.S.,” was “using the subject treadmill in a reasonably foreseeable manner,” the lawsuit charged. “Defendant… had actual and constructive notice that the subject treadmill was extremely and unreasonably dangerous, hazardous and not reasonably safe for its intended purposes and foreseeable uses.”
“We are currently reviewing this complaint,” said a Peloton spokesperson. “We care deeply about the safety of our community at Peloton and take each and every incident report seriously.”
Company CEO John Foley apologized in May and admitted his company “made a mistake” in brushing aside the federal warnings. Family lawyer Nathan Werksman said the fitness business’ behavior was indefensible.
“As alleged in the lawsuit, Peloton sells a dangerous treadmill specifically designed to be used at home, with children around, that literally sucks kids underneath without stopping,” said Werksman.
Peloton reaped the benefits of a boom in home exercise equipment during the pandemic, with many gyms shuttered by COVID-19 restrictions, and reported $1 billion in revenues in the last three months of 2020 — more than double the amount from the same stretch of 2019.
Original story found here.
