

Most fatalities occurred when a riding mower flipped, say, over an embankment, pinning the operator underneath. The most dangerous scenario? Using a riding mower over uneven terrain. "This is especially important when using loud equipment like a lawn mower because you can't hear someone approaching." “When you’re working in your yard, you should always be aware of your surroundings, especially if any children or bystanders are nearby,” says Huber. Those sharp, spinning blades can amputate a finger, toe, or even a foot when someone slips under the mower, as happened to 3 percent of the more than 85,000 people injured by mowers.

When a walk-behind or riding mower is in use, the injuries can be considerably more gruesome. But a mower’s blade can cause injuries without the machine even being on: About 20 percent of people who get hurt cut themselves, mostly on their fingers or hands while changing or sharpening the mower blade or removing something stuck in it. That blade can fling a projectile like a rock or dog toy as far as 100 feet. Bystanders also get hurt, such as children who have been killed or injured when playing near a mower or other outdoor power gear.Ī lot of things can go wrong when you’re using a mower, considering its motor can spin a sharp blade faster than 200 miles per hour. When working in the yard turns deadly, it can be due to carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas-powered engine running in an enclosed space, for example, or people getting trapped under large equipment, like a riding lawn mower.Īnd it’s not just the person doing the yard work who’s at risk. (Check out these three simple steps to stay safe on a ladder.)īut using power equipment can cause far worse accidents. Falls from ladders cause more injuries than all the power equipment in our research combined, resulting in broken backs, ankles, legs, and hips. It's also worth noting that in our research, we also came across a disturbing number of injuries associated with a common piece of equipment that doesn't have a motor at all: ladders. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.The injuries people suffer run the gamut from overexertion and dehydration to cuts and amputations from using all kinds of power equipment. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior.

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