A mother is suing the fitness company Peloton, claiming its exercise bike killed her son during a workout inside his Brooklyn home.
Johanna Furtado filed her lawsuit in New York and the document alleges her son Ryan was “killed instantly” as a result of the incident that happened in January 2022, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.
The woman says the bike fell on top of the man while he was lifting himself off the floor during an exercise routine.
Images show the man who was about to turn 33 in the days after he died, and the Mail report noted officers with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) found him with the bike laying across his face.
The Mail report continued:
During his routine, as Furtado was getting up from the floor using the equipment for leverage, the bike ‘spun around and impacted him on his neck and face severing in his carotid artery in his neck killing him instantly.’
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Furtado’s death is not the first involving a Peloton bike. In 2021, a 6-year-old was killed after being dragged by a treadmill while a 3-year-old suffered a ‘brain injury’ during a similar incident. The model involved in those incidents, the Peloton Tread Plus, has since been discontinued.
In May, Peloton issued a recall for over two million exercise bikes across the nation due to safety concerns, Breitbart News reported at the time.
“The recall applies to approximately 2.2 million units of the Peloton Bikes Model PL01 sold in the U.S. from January 2018 until earlier this month,” the outlet continued:
The safety concern revolves around the potential risk of the seat post assembly breaking during use, which could result in falls and injuries. Peloton has reported 35 incidents of seat post breakage and detachment, leading to 13 reported injuries, including fractured wrists, lacerations, and bruises caused by falling off the bike.
When speaking of the incident involving Ryan Furtado, one social media user said, “Pretty sure that’s called a freak accident,” while another stated, “Exercise bikes , treadmills etc have always posed a risk in homes. Unfortunately this is sort of common. Still very sad ofc.”
The man was reportedly doing a “core” workout when the incident happened, the Mail article said.
“The suit alleges that Peloton should have identified ‘the foreseeable misuse that people would also use the Subject Bike to pull themselves up from the floor during a workout increasing an unknown risk of injury to the user, such as the case with Ryan,'” the outlet noted, adding the lawsuit also claims the company should have several warnings about possible injury when it comes to using the device to get up off the floor.
However, Peloton has since said the man’s death was his own fault and claimed the company was not legally responsible in the matter.
In August, Peloton shares plummeted 30 percent to an all-time low, “with the company warning of a negative cash flow in the next two quarters. Peloton stock has dropped 95 percent from its high during the coronavirus pandemic,” according to Breitbart News.
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