‘It almost took me from my family’: Action 9 investigates 3-wheel motorcycle fire

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke has covered a variety of vehicle fires through the years -- vehicles that were not involved in accidents when they caught fire.

Now Action 9 is looking into complaints that involve three-wheel motorcycles.

Elisha Braithwaite of Charlotte said he was riding with a group on Interstate 485 when his Can-Am Spyder caught fire.

Fortunately, Braithwaite was stopped and able to get off the bike as soon as the fire started. He had stopped to help his son, who had moved his vehicle to the side of the road.

“Had my son not pulled over, I probably wouldn’t be here talking because that would’ve been a whole different story if I was on the bike when that happened,” Braithwaite said.

Braithwaite said he contacted Can-Am motorcycles and the company stated it was sorry for what happened, but there was nothing it could do about it.

Stoogenke checked federal safety records for all 2011-2020 Can-Am models and found eight complaints involving fires.

Action 9 also checked for recalls for Braithwaite’s specific model from 2011-2020 and found five fire-related recalls but none for 2019, the year of Braithwaite’s Can-Am.

>> Watch raw cellphone video of the fire below:

RAW CELLPHONE VIDEO: Can-Am goes up in flames

Stoogenke contacted the company that makes the motorcycle, Bombardier Recreational Products, about Braithwaite’s case.

The company stated it won’t discuss specific cases for customer privacy reasons but did provide the following statement:

“We want to reassure all of our riders that our products are safe and that we have high standards when it comes to the reliability of our products. We’d also like to take this opportunity to remind our customers that we strongly recommend to not proceed to any alterations that are outside of the original specifications of the product and especially, by an unauthorized servicing dealer.”

Braithwaite said he never added any parts and only had the motorcycle serviced by the dealer.

“I’m the consumer here. I saved money to purchase the bike. I did everything right on my side and something went wrong with the bike,” Braithwaite said. “It almost took me from my family, almost took my life … I mean you should do something here. Investigate it more. Look into it.”

Cox Media Group