Lawn Mower Safety

I drove past a bloke mowing his lawn in thongs (that’s what we call flip flops – not a G string) this afternoon and I had a flash back to my childhood when my grandfather used to wear his thongs between his second and third toes after getting his big toe chopped off by his lawnmower. From memory, he had it on blocks and was doing maintenance on it when it dropped and started on his foot. He didn’t learn much though as I still remember watching him carry the mower, while it was running, up the back stairs because it was too hard to start when it was hot! I’ll never forget when he bought a new one and kept it in his bedroom for a few years!

He may not have learnt much but when I started mowing, I always wore safety boots thanks to him. I know I should know better but I rarely wear ear muffs or safety glasses. What I am paranoid about is mowing when other people are around. I remember doing a safety training course and the trainer telling us that a rock/bone/stick will fly from a lawnmower at the speed of a bullet. My wife has had her passenger side window smashed while driving past a bloke on a ride-on. Our shed has a big ding in it thanks to me mowing over a steel bolt.

I did some research on lawn mower injuries and here are some injury statistics from Stats.org- see full details

The Risks of Lawn Mowing
Trevor Butterworth and Jenna Krall, July 17, 2007
What happens when you take a set of sharp blades and spin them at 160 mph across a lawn?

Mowing the lawn is a more hazardous activity than one might think, sending 242,000 Americans to the ER between 2004 and 2006. A study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that accidents increased from 1996 to 2004. Ninety-five percent of lawn mower accidents treated at the Johns Hopkins pediatric trauma center between 2000 and 2005 involved amputations that needed reattachment or reconstructive surgery, according to Medical News Today. The decision to mow the lawn can also have fatal consequences for adults with heart problems.

Number of fatal accidents
There were 133 fatalities in 2006 from using lawnmowers of all types, based on a national probability sample of hospitals in the U.S. and its territories. In 2005, there were 406 deaths. However the difference is almost certainly a result of a reduction in the statistical weighting given to those hospitals where the deaths occurred in 2005, so it would be wrong to infer any trend downwards.

Chance of a fatal accident
One in 2,245,264 in 2006.

Cause of death
All the fatalities from lawn mowing resulted from cardiac arrest. All were male and aged between 40 and 79.

Still not convinced?

Here are some links to sites with some pretty sobering photos of the results of lawn mower injuries. WARNING – there are some pretty gory injury photos here so enter at your own risk:

When Lawnmowers attack – American Society of Plastic Surgeons

Tagged as: back stairs, bloke, bloomberg school of public health, ear muffs, hazardous activity, injury statistics, johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health, krall, lawn mower, lawn mowing, lawnmower, ninety five, Safety, safety boots, safety glasses, school of public health, speed of a bullet, steel bolt, trevor butterworth