Ryan Furtado (via GoFundMe). Inset: CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA – JANUARY 20: A Peloton bike on the showroom floor on January 20, 2022 in Coral Gables, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The mother of a man who died while using his Peloton stationary bike has sued the fitness company, accusing it of not properly warning customers of the exercise machine’s potential danger.
Ryan Furtado, 32, died in January 2022 while using his Peloton Bike+ for an at-home workout. According to a lawsuit filed by his mother, Johanna Furtado, the company failed to make the bike safe for users.
“The Subject Bike is defective and unreasonably dangerous in design, instruction, and warning,” says the complaint, filed in New York state court. “Peloton sold the Subject Bike to Ryan in a defective and unreasonably dangerous condition.”
Ryan Furtado, who purchased the bike in July 2021, had apparently completed a course of floor exercises when tragedy struck.
“On January 13, 2022, Ryan was completing a ‘Core’ workout on the Subject Bike,” the complaint says. “The workout requires riders to disembark the bike to conduct exercises on the floor. Ryan disembarked the bike and conducted the floor exercises. When rising from those exercises, Ryan used the bike to assist him in getting up. The bike spun around and impacted him on his neck and face severing his carotid artery in his neck killing him instantly.”
The lawsuit says that Ryan was found by police with the bike “still resting on his neck and face.”
According to the complaint, Peloton instructors walk users through a series of stretches that rely on the bike for support and, therefore, should have anticipated that someone might use the bike to get up off the ground after completing a Peloton workout.
“The Subject Bike had a defect in its warning — By and through the trainer on the workout instructing the user to use the Bike for stretching which rendered the Subject Bike unreasonably dangerous under foreseeable circumstances through users applying pressure on the Bike in a pulling and pushing fashion causing the Bike to destabilize and fall, and further 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 complaint says.
The negligence lawsuit calls the bike “unreasonably dangerous” and “not reasonably fit, suitable, or safe” for its intended use.
Peloton has denied the allegations, saying in a court filing that Ryan Furtado’s death was “caused or contributed to by plaintiff’s decedent’s own negligence, intentional act and/or fault.”
“[T]he incident giving rise to this action and the alleged injuries were caused by misuse or abuse of the product,” Peloton’s answer also says. “Upon information and belief, plaintiff’s decedent knew and assumed the risks and hazards associated with the activity in which he was engaged at the time of the alleged incident and any damages were the result of such risks voluntarily undertaken.”
The fitness company also says that the case must be handled in arbitration, pursuant to the terms of the service agreement.
“We offer our deepest sympathy and condolences to the Furtado family for this unfortunate accident,” a Peloton spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Law&Crime. “As a Member-first company, the health and safety of our Member community is a top priority.”
The lawsuit was filed in March and was first reported by the Daily Beast.
Read the complaint below.
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