Anyone who has been paying attention has likely encountered hoverboards. They were the hot new gift this holiday season and can be spotted at your neighborhood mall grocery store or even street corner. Children and adults alike are fascinated with the new gadgets, treating them more as fun toys rather than a serious alternative mode of transportation.
The problem is that the hoverboards aren’t all fun and games. Thousands of YouTube videos are devoted to cataloging the ways riders can hurt themselves on the hoverboards. Videos of people flipping and falling and slipping off the devices have accumulated hundreds of thousands of views. While some of these accidents are comical, others are quite serious. People can suffer broken bones, fractures and concussions due to the sudden and violent accidents involving hoverboards.
Beyond the accidents, another even more troubling danger of the hoverboards has become apparent: fires. Reports of fires related to hoverboards are on the rise, with the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently announcing that it is investigating 22 such reported incidents. The fires occur while the boards are charging and even while the boards are in use. Several have caused damage not only to the boards and riders, but also the homes where the boards were being stored.