Justice Scales and wooden gavel
David Talukdar / Getty Images
Johanna Furtado is suing Peloton, alleging its bike caused her son’s death in 2022.Her lawsuit seeks recompense for emotional and financial damages. Peloton denied the allegations and requested that the suit be dismissed.
Johanna Furtado is suing Peloton, claiming that her son Ryan Furtado was killed when his bike fell on him during a workout in January 2022.
A lawsuit filed in March 2023 claims that when Ryan was doing a core workout, he used the bike to assist him in getting up off the floor. As he did so, “the bike spun around and impacted him on his neck and face severing his carotid artery in his neck killing him instantly,” according to the suit. Ryan Furtado was later found by the New York Police Department.
Johanna Furtado alleges in the suit that Peloton did not provide enough warning that the bike could cause injury if people used it to pull themselves off the floor. On the bike Ryan was using, the lawsuit claims there was only a single warning label, which the suit calls “inadequate.”
Johanna Furtado is seeking damages from Peloton including, including but not limited to funds to help with funeral and burial expenses, lost inheritance, and suffering Ryan may have endured, according to the suit.
Peloton denied the allegations and requested that the suit be dismissed, saying in a court filing that the “alleged injuries were caused by misuse or abuse of the product.”
“We offer our deepest sympathy and condolences to the Furtado family for this unfortunate accident,” Peloton’s Senior VP of Global Communications Ben Boyd told Insider in a statement. “As a Member-first company, the health and safety of our Member community is a top priority.”
The lawsuit is only one of the issues Peloton has faced over the past few years.
In 2021, a child was killed in an accident involving Peloton’s Tread+ treadmill. The company later agreed to pay $19 million in penalties after it failed to take action when it received 150 reports of injuries caused by the treadmills.
The company also recalled more than two million of its original $1,400 bikes earlier this year, after people reported the seat posts broke and caused injuries.
Legal representatives for Furtado did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.