By Mike Byrne

The balance board trend left Fordham as quickly as it came ­— on Public Safety’s orders. In the week before spring semester classes began, Fordham Public Safety’s Associate Vice President, John Carroll, announced in a university-wide email that self-balancing electric scooters, or “hoverboards”, are no longer permitted on campus.

His announcement follows the New York Police Department’s recent decision to ban hoverboards on streets and sidewalks for being in violation of vehicle traffic law.

Hoverboards, which have a price range of approximately $300 — $1500, have gained much of their popularity from videos posted on social media of celebrities riding and/or falling off them. They are now seen as dangerous due to the number of injuries sustained while riding them and reports of them combusting.

“I like to hope that the students understand that we don’t do anything negative here, and we certainly don’t do anything to be restrictive,” Carroll stated. “We want them to have the greatest time in the world here, we just don’t want them to get hurt.”
Carroll said that the problem with the hoverboards is that multitudes of manufacturers are making them more and more cheaply. “Numbers of them have gone on fire, and they’ve gone on fire when nobody’s touched them,” Carroll said.“It’s an incendiary device.”

Hoverboards have recently become a source of national controversy as they continue to send people to the emergency room and cause fires. According to USA Today, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has declared that it is investigating 28 fires linked to hoverboard malfunctions. The scooters have also sent at least 70 individuals to the hospital.

Wired reports that the low-cost, lithium-ion batteries in cheaper models are what cause the fires in question. Even in the more expensive models, lithium-ion batteries are still susceptible to catching on fire since the hoverboards will often crash and damage the mechanics. Cheaper models are in even more danger of igniting due to impurities in the battery’s metal particles that can cause the hoverboards to become defective.

While the vehicles are illegal on city streets and sidewalks, people are still allowed to own them and use them in parks or in their homes.

Carroll stated that both the NYPD and FDNY have expressed concern over the growing popularity of the hoverboards. “I think that anyone that buys one of those things is out of their mind” said police commissioner Bill Bratton at a news conference last month.“We live in an extraordinarily crowded city. We have a hard enough time walking down the street, let alone hovering down.”

Carroll agreed with the police department’s decision and emphasized that, as a head administrator in Fordham’s public safety department, “[My] job is to prevent injuries…and also to serve our students, and that’s what we do night and day.”

Fordham is not alone in its choice to prohibit hoverboards. Many other major universities across the country – such as Boston College, Vanderbilt University and Purdue University – have also informed their students that they will not allow the vehicles on campus. Airlines, like United and Delta, now also forbid passengers from bringing them on planes, and many other cities and states are considering ways to put limits on usage of the devices.

So far, the Fordham community has been relatively quiet about the recent ban, some students even expressing relief. “I think Fordham definitely has the best interests in mind for students when they are making their decisions,” said John Kuyat, FCRH ’19. “With all the recent cases of hoverboards catching on fire and people getting injured while riding them, Fordham had to make a judgment call that I think, in the end, will make us safer.”