Hoverboard mishaps send local residents to emergency rooms

GALVESTON - The debut of the hoverboard in the 1989 movie "Back to the Future II" made it look easy. Marty McFly, the character played by Michael J. Fox, time-traveled to 2015 where he floated effortlessly above the sidewalk on the wheel-less skateboard.

Fast forward 26 years to 2016 and hoverboards are indeed popular in real life, but they don't float above the ground - and riders are prone to nasty falls. Emergency rooms in the Houston area have reported a wave of admissions for hoverboard injuries since Christmas.

Dr. David Wong of Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital said its emergency room had treated 14 hoverboard injuries as of Thursday, some requiring surgery. "I don't think we saw any before Christmas," Wong said. "Hoverboards haven't been around that long, but everyone bought them for Christmas."

Wong said the hoverboard injuries were the first he had seen in his three years working in the emergency room.

The hoverboards that exploded in popularity in 2015 are battery-powered, skateboard-sized platforms with two wheels that glide along the sidewalk, more like a Segway without handlebars.

Hoverboards in some cases have exploded into flames. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating 22 hoverboard fires in 17 states, agency spokeswoman Patty Davis said. A hoverboard fire Monday at a kiosk selling them temporarily closed Deerbrook Mall, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Houston. Lawsuits are already being filed against retailers and manufacturers, and the devices were recently lampooned on "Saturday Night Live."

None of which appears to be immediately affecting the popularity of the hoverboards, as reflected in the number of injured enthusiasts showing up in emergency rooms across the Houston area.

The Memorial Hermann and Houston Methodist Hospital systems both reported hoverboard injuries appearing at their emergency rooms and urgent care clinics throughout the Houston region, but doctors at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospitals were the only physicians to keep an exact tally. There is no formal category for hoverboard injuries, but the doctors informally decided to keep track after they started seeing patients with hoverboard-related injuries, Wong said.

Safety investigation

Dr. Hannah Smith, an ER physician at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center who treated a hoverboard injury two days after Christmas, said users should wear the same protective gear as roller bladers or skateboarders.

"We've had a handful of these incidents, nothing serious," said Houston Methodist spokesman Denny Angelle. He said hoverboard injuries were reported in Sugar Land, Cypress, San Jacinto and Baytown, all since Christmas, but he couldn't be certain about the number. The emergency room at Harris Health System's Ben Taub Hospital in Houston also saw a number of hoverboard injuries, spokesman Bryan McLeod said.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission had tallied 70 emergency-room visits nationwide as of Thursday, most from collisions and falls, Davis said. One ER visit was for inhaling smoke from a burning hoverboard, Davis said.

Wong, who owns a hoverboard, said the injuries typically involve the hands, wrists and elbows.

"They get on these hoverboards without any protective gear whatsoever," he said. "They should wear wrist guards, helmets, elbow guards and knee pads."

Consumer safety officials are investigating why hoverboards, which range in cost from $90 to more than $1,000, have been bursting into flames. In Mauldin, S.C., fire officials said a hoverboard exploded Tuesday at one home after a teen charged it, and the batteries caught fire and flew across the room, setting a chair on fire.

The agency has singled out poorly designed lithium-ion batteries as a possible culprit, and governments at home and abroad have been seizing substandard hoverboards. About 15,000 hoverboards suspected of having substandard electrical parts were seized in Great Britain last month. U.S. Customs agents seized 445 subpar hoverboards in Norfolk, Va., last week.

The possibility of fires prompted at least three airlines - Delta, American and USAirways - to ban them from flights.

Metrolink, the commuter rail system in southern California, announced it was banning hoverboards, too.

No ban for Metro

Asked if it was considering a ban, Metropolitan Transit Authority spokeswoman Margaret O'Brien-Molina said no Houston ban is imminent.

"Based on their size and the way they are used, our operators are being instructed to treat them as they would a skateboard," she said. "In those cases the operator will ask the customer to carry the device to secure it from coming into contact with other patrons."

O'Brien-Molina said no incidents involving hoverboards have occurred so far on Metro buses or trains. Like bicycles and skateboards, the devices may not be ridden on Metro vehicles or on rail platforms.

Some manufacturers, including Samsung, are labeling their hoverboards as fire-safe.

Nationwide, hoverboards are mostly unregulated, but they are illegal in New York City. In California, new regulations took effect on New Year's Day requiring riders on the street to be at least 16 and to wear a helmet that must be equipped with a light if used at night.

Other designs

As hoverboards surge in popularity, entrepreneurs are striving to come up with a true hoverboard worthy of Marty McFly. In late 2014, inventors Jill and Greg Henderson sought capital through the investment website Kickstarter to fund the Hendoboard Hoverboard, designed to ride on a magnetic cushion created by spinning magnets that repel a copper floor. The hitch is that the device is restricted to copper-lined surfaces.

Lexus came out with a hoverboard video, but it turns out that it required floor magnets to keep it aloft.

A Canadian inventor came up with the Omni Hoverboard, which hovered on propellers that quickly ran out of power.

The closest to a true hoverboard is the Arcaboard, with 36 battery-powered fans. The Arcaboard costs $19,000 and stays in the air for six minutes.

So it appears that hoverboards will have wheels for awhile longer.

Reporter Dug Begley and the Associated Press contributed to this story.