Onewheel skateboards connected to two new deaths, CPSC records show

In the month since Future Motion recalled about 300,000 Onewheel Electric Skateboards because of four deaths and dozens of serious injuries connected to the product, at least two more deaths have been reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The deaths that were discussed in the CPSC’s Sept. 29, 2023, announcement occurred in 2019, 2020 and 2021. The two newly reported deaths occurred in July 2022 and August 2023,  according to incident reports on saferproducts.gov. The first involved a 63-year-old man; the second involved a 41-year-old woman. The new incidents were uncovered by one of PIRG’s product safety coalition partners, Consumer Reports. A number of new injury reports have also been filed with the CPSC. In a variety of product recalls, we often see a flood of reports involving past incidents once a product recall is made public.

Among the newly reported incidents: a 37-year-old who said he suffered a concussion and bruises last year; a 36-year-old woman who was treated by medical professionals after suffering unspecified injuries days last month; a 33-year-old man who suffered a concussion, torn rotator cuff, torn biceps tendon and bone fleck in upper arm in 2017;  an 11-year-old boy who suffered cuts and bruises in August; and a 17-year-old who suffered a broken jaw and concussion in August.

The Onewheel skateboards posed a risk because they could stop balancing a rider without warning and cause a crash, the CPSC said. The electric skateboards were often used for transportation, not just recreation. Many of those who reported injuries were in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

Future Motion of Santa Cruz, Cal., received dozens of reports of incidents involving the skateboards, including deaths and injuries such as traumatic brain injury, paralysis, concussion, broken bones and damaged ligaments.

The recall involves all models of Future Motion Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards, including the original Onewheel the Onewheel+, Onewheel+ XR, Onewheel Pint, Onewheel Pint X and Onewheel GT.

The recalled products sold for $1,050 to $2,200, from January 2014 through last September 2023. Owners can contact Future Motion for a refund or repair, online at https://recall.onewheel.com, or through email https://onewheel.com or by phone at 800-283-7943 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday. Some of the models may be able to be repaired through a software download that may be ready within several weeks.The boards should not be used until and unless they’re repaired, the CPSC said.

A year ago, the CPSC issued a “warning” about the “risk of death and serious injury” from the Onewheel skateboards, even though the company hadn’t agreed to a recall. This doesn’t happen often.