Former mayor shatters wrist in hoverboard spill
CORAL SPRINGS — Mayors are generally more accustomed to the dangers of city politics.
But former Coral Springs Mayor Vince Boccard joined the growing list of people nationwide hurt by hoverboards, which are like skateboards that move as a rider leans in one direction or the other.
On Christmas morning, he rode his son’s new toy for nearly a half hour when he realized he didn’t know how to stop. He tried to step off but the board jerked underneath him, sending him spiraling to the ground.
“I went down hard,” said Boccard, 60, who left the city commission in 2014 after term limits forced him out.
By 8:30 a.m. he was in the emergency room at Broward Health Coral Springs where doctors reset his shattered wrist.
“I think I saw God at that point in time” because of the pain, Boccard said.
Last week he underwent a two-hour surgery for his left wrist and he still faces at last six months of physical therapy.
Hospitals in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties have reported being inundated with dozens of visits because of hoverboards. Injuries included broken and fractured wrists, as well as concussions.
Among them was U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Miami, who posted a photo of himself on Twitter with his arm in a sling.
Boccard said three more hoverboard-related accident patients trailed in behind him that morning in Coral Springs.