A&E doctors are gearing up for a summer of lawn mower related accidents, as despite warnings and advice on staying safe around lawn mowers, the attitude of “it won’t happen to me, those things happen to other people” remains, and leads to easily avoidable accidents each year. Of all lawn mower related accidents, the ones that are the fault of the person who got injured are the most easily avoided; these accidents are often caused by user error, poor judgement, or simply not thinking about what is happening.
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However, accidents that cause injury to young children are the hardest to understand; children are notorious for not listening to parents, and without the life experience that we have as adults, they are not able to make judgements about what is safe and what is not.
Doctors report that although injuries caused by people putting their fingers near a running mower blade are uncommon, they do happen. What is alarming is that more often than not, the injured person has taken precautions to shut off the engine, but then use their fingers to clear wet grass or debris from the mower deck. Accidents then happen simply because the fingers are close enough to the blades to catch it when any tension is released, so by using a stick or something else to release clogged grass there is a much lower risk of injury.
Another very common injury is caused by debris flying up into the eyes and face from underneath a lawnmower or strimmer, so eye protection is key for anyone using lawn care equipment. Of course, anyone else in the vicinity is liable to be hit by flying stones and twigs, so really anyone in the garden should be wearing protective gear. Children are really at risk here, because they don’t have the ability to judge what is a safe distance to stay back from people using potentially dangerous equipment, and usually the equipment is so loud that the operator can be totally unaware of a child standing right behind them.
We have seen several stories of children losing limbs because they were run over by ride on lawnmowers, and this does seem to be a recurrent problem. Manufacturers are starting to address this problem; on their keyring for the ride on lawnmowers a simple message; “where are your children?” reminds users to check that kids are indoors or otherwise supervised before the lawnmower is even started.
John Brooks, founder of Little Feet Safety Systems is going one further in the field of keeping children safe around lawn mowers and other lawn care equipment, by developing a safety system that automatically shuts off the engine of whatever equipment is being used when a child gets too close.
Brooks was inspired when a local child lost both feet in a lawn mower accident and he discovered that even though manufacturers are trying to raise awareness and provide safety tips, this is not a preventative measure and is certainly not failsafe.
Brooks’ invention is a two part device; one part stays on the lawn mower and shuts the engine off if the second part of the device is within range. The second part can be attached to clothes, shoes or a wrist band, and all that needs to be done is for the device to be fitted to the child before lawn mowing is commenced. That way, even if a child slips out of the house unnoticed and approaches the lawn mower without being seen, the lawn mower will shut off if the child is within the danger range, taking a little responsibility off the person mowing while providing peace of mind. Although Brooks only has a provisional patent, he believes his device will be on the market next year and that cannot happen soon enough; we will surely see several more reports of children being seriously injured by lawn mowers before this device is available.