CPSC, Segway LLC Announce Voluntary Recall to Upgrade Software on Segway™ Human Transporters

CPSC ^ | 9/26/2003

[justlurking]

Recall Alert

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Office of Information and Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20207

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September 26, 2003

CPSC, Segway LLC Announce Voluntary Recall to Upgrade Software on Segway™ Human Transporters

The following product safety recall was conducted by the firm in cooperation with the CPSC.

Name of Product: Segway Human Transporter (HT)

Units: Approximately 6,000

Manufacturer: Segway LLC of Manchester, New Hampshire

Hazard: Under certain operating conditions, particularly when the batteries are near the end of charge, some Segway HTs may not deliver enough power, allowing the rider to fall. This can happen if the rider speeds up abruptly, encounters an obstacle, or continues to ride after receiving a low-battery alert.

Incidents/Injuries: Segway LLC has received three reports of falls that may be related to this condition, including one report of a consumer who sustained a head injury requiring stitches.

Description: This recall involves all Segway HT i167 (“i Series”) models sold to consumers. In addition, Segway LLC is including all e167 (“e Series”) and i167 models sold to commercial users, and all p133 (“p Series”) models sold to consumers in test markets.

Sold At: Directly by Segway LLC and through certain dealers and resellers from March 2002 through September 2003. Segway HTs have also been made available to the public by authorized rental agents.

Manufactured In: U.S.A.

Remedy: Call Segway LLC toll-free at 877-889-9020 between 8 am and 8 pm Monday through Friday (ET) for information on how to receive a free software upgrade. Segway LLC is directly contacting owners of these products.

Riders are reminded that, even after the software upgrade, appropriate operating techniques as described in Segway HT user materials are essential to safety.

Segway HT i167

Segway HT p133

Segway HT e167

[Bubba_Leroy]

A helpful customer review from Amazon.com"

Great fun for the kiddos!, September 17, 2003

Reviewer: An electronics fan from Kanagawa, Japan

Yeah, I bought a few of these for the kids for Xmas and they absolutely love them! They box is pretty bulky and wouldn't fit easily under a normal Xmas tree, so we had to get a 50 foot Xmas tree instead. No worries, though: the ceilings in our main house are 20 meters high. Johnny, our oldest rugrat, has expecially taken to the thing. He has some fairly challenging behavioural disourders (which he inherited from his mothers genes, NOT mine, mind you) and he ended up riding the thing into our Olympic-sized swimming pool, but not to worry: Amazzon's return policy covered it and we were able to get a replacement at no charge. Billie-Joe, our second sprog, has taken to riding his Segway on his half-pipe skate ramp. After some modifications by our Afro-American mechanic, Mr. Belvedere, BJ's Segway now has enough power that he can do off-the-lips, rib slides, and "360s" with his Segway. Alls I gotsta say is, the Segway is segWAY COOL! And you can quote me on that.

[justlurking]

Sorry, I thought the search would return articles in reverse-date order. When they didn't pop to the top, I posted the complete CPSC bulletin. The other threads:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/990120/posts?page=1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/990184/posts?page=1

[aimhigh]

This is the first article I've seen to indicate the number sold. Interesting.