NEWS-07
catching fire.>
half a million hoverboards made between June of 2015 and May of this year
that do not meet standards set by underwriters laboratories.>
MAURICE DUBOIS: The hot gift last Christmas had a nasty habit of getting too hot and catching fire. Today, more than five hundred thousand hoverboards made by ten companies were recalled. Kris Van Cleave has the details.
(Begin VT)
KRIS VAN CLEAVE: It happened in an instant to Delvon Simmons.
DELVON SIMMONS: The wheels locked up. And the next thing I know I was airborne. Next thing I know I`m just seeing sparks flying.
KRIS VAN CLEAVE: His hoverboard`s battery failed, sparking a fire. And he is not alone. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received at least ninety-nine reports of the lithium-ion battery packs that power hoverboards overheating, sparking, smoking, catching fire or exploding--resulting in injuries and an estimated two million dollars in property damage. This house fire in Nashville is among more than sixty fires in twenty states linked to hoverboards.
ELLIOT KAYE: If you own a hoverboard, please stop using it immediately.
KRIS VAN CLEAVE: CPSC Chairman Elliot Kaye announced the sweeping recall of more than half a million hoverboards made between June of 2015 and May of this year that do not meet standards set by underwriters laboratories.
ELLIOT KAYE: All of the models that are recalled were made with fundamental design flaws that put people at real risk.
KRIS VAN CLEAVE: Hoverboards have been banned by some airlines, universities and even the New York City subway. Jen Olson`s company KGO Project Management bought fifty hoverboards as gifts for its employees last Christmas. Olson is just learning of the recall.
JEN OLSON: I hope that it kind of changes the way that they`re manufactured and it becomes safer for everybody to use, you know, because they`re just a lot of fun to have.
(End VT)
KRIS VAN CLEAVE: Manufacturer Swagway tells CBS News safety is its number- one priority. It will replace the battery pack on its recalled X1 models. Maurice, the CPSC estimates seventy-two hundred hoverboard-related injuries have landed people in emergency rooms. Half were fractures due to falling.
MAURICE DUBOIS: Okay. Kris Van Cleave in Washington.
And we`ll be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MAURICE DUBOIS: Pope Francis met privately today with the parents of a college student from Wisconsin who was murdered in Rome. Beau Solomon`s body was found in the Tiber River just days after he arrived for summer classes.
In a first in this country, surgeons in Arizona today implanted a new type of stent to open clogged arteries. It`s made of a plastic-like material that gradually dissolves. The developer believes it can prevent blood clots, which are linked to metal stents.
In Boston, somebody left a bag full of cash in Buzzy MacCausland`s cab, nearly a hundred eighty-eight thousand dollars. The driver turned in the money to the police, who traced it to a homeless man who had just inherited it. The man thought the cabbie deserved a reward.
RAYMOND "BUZZY" MACCAUSLAND: He pulled one little hundred-dollar bill out. Of course, you know, one little one. He gave it to me.
MAURICE DUBOIS: It pays to be honest. But in this case, not very much the way we figure it--about 0.05 percent.
We`re back in just a moment.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
END
(Copy: Content and programming Copyright MMXVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.)