Fingers Lost To Lawnmower

[jimmyj]

Poor old fella. I hope he is OK. Amazing how quick things happen. Once I was mowing the lawn with a push mower and i had to back up a bit to get around a rock. I forgot there was a lawn chair there and backed over it losing my balance. I fell back but still held onto the mower thus pulling it up over my foot. It was pretty nasty but I never lost any toes because I had heavy leather shoes on. Took months to heal though.

My neighbor also was mowing one day (across the road) and his lawn boy threw a rock so fast it broke the windsheild of my truck in my driveway!

 

[JohnDeere4300]

A house a couple of doors from us is a rental house and new renters moved in this past week. I haven't met them, but we've been told it's a couple with 5 little kids, then the husband's parents are living with them to take care of the kids while the younger couple both work. I went to Walmart yesterday morning and when I came back, my wife said an ambulance and fire truck had just left that house. This afternoon, a neighbor across the street told my wife that the 80 year old grandfather was mowing the yard (which had been badly neglected by the previous renter), the grass built up under the mower, and he picked it up with the engine running. It took off all 4 fingers. They found one finger, but were unable to re-attach it, and he's still in the hospital. I don't know whether it was a lack of knowledge on his part, or if his age caused him to forget.

Very sad to hear this.

This poor old man was just trying to get the grass cut and looking good, and was probably going to keep it cut so it won't be neglected again.... I just hope & pray that he doesn't get an infection, and i can't imagine what he went through during this accident.

At that age he could have went into shock very easy, or had a heart-attack.

What i would like to know is....WHY did the owner of this house that rents it out let the grass get so high.

If the owner would have kept the grass cut, then this would not have happened...(JMHO)

My thoughts & prayer will be with this man & his family!

*Thanks Bird for sharing this.... It could save someone in the future from doing this.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Pure conjecture: Every town has a "lawmmower man" who sells good running old lawnmowers to new homeowners for $50. No safety features. Hearing loss may also have been a factor.

Reminds me of the false urban legend about loss of fingers using the lawnmower to trim a hedge. It was presented as fact in one of my engineering classes talking about liability.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

What i would like to know is....WHY did the owner of this house that rents it out let the grass get so high.

If the owner would have kept the grass cut, then this would not have happened...(JMHO)

Sue him! And the lawnmower man too!

As though the renters didn't see the condition of the place before they rented. This year my grass will clog the mower after a week. Raise your hand if your mower nas never clogged. [jmho]

 

[Transit]

Brad you should be sued. Why didn't you cut the lawn for the old man? Stop trying to shift the blame. The ultimate responsibility is the user. If the mower was defective, misused, beyond the ability of the user to operate safely, drug/medication involved then it should not have been used.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

Sue him! And the lawnmower man too!

As though the renters didn't see the condition of the place before they rented. This year my grass will clog the mower after a week. Raise your hand if your mower nas never clogged. [jmho]

I think Bird said the grass was badly neglected.... So I'm guessing that it was at least knee high or higher.

I'm sure the grass had not been cut for over a week before they moved in.

It should be the owners of the house responsibility to keep it cut even if no one is living in the house..... and the county or city can get an order to have it cut if neighbors start complaining about it.

My hand is raised... I mow my lawn before a week is up, not after a week, and sometimes i mow twice a week.

 

[Bird]

This year my grass will clog the mower after a week

I just finished mowing my yard this morning, and I'm mowing every 4 to 5 days.

I have no idea what kind of lease agreement the owner of the rental house has, but the prior renter rarely mowed the yard. In fact, I think he only mowed when another neighbor called the city to report him. And the house wasn't vacant but about 2 weeks. I was even a bit surprised that it rented again so quickly when the other renter moved out.

I agree that the owner of the house should have had the yard mowed and made neat for the new renters, but I certainly do NOT see that there should be lawsuit against anyone.

 

[cowboy357]

It is sad to here & I hope he recovers , I guess my question would be why would the kids let Him mow in the first place .

& like Bird said thoughts of suing anyone is just plain silly IMO , unless of coarse your an attorney .

But thanks for posting this Bird, its posts like this that makes me pay more attention when I,m doing something . Bob

 

[Reg]

Age of the MOWER was probably also a factor.
If it was his and he had owned it for 30+ years it probably had no interlocks.

It seems that just about everything young enough to still be in service requires at least one hand to be gripping some sort of a "keep running" bar (dead man's handle).
Not that THOSE features don't get defeated on mowers as well as tractors.
Still a sad tale, I hope he makes it through OK.

 

[wvpolekat]

With the exception of age related or mental issues, there is no way to explain away STICKING YOUR HAND UNDER A RUNNING MOWER.

I mean, really, to any rational person, is there any question what would happen when you do this? It's akin to forgetting to point a gun downrange and shooting yourself in the head. It's not one of those "ooops, I missed my turn" type of things or getting your fingers pinched because you absentmindedly put your hand somewhere. Anyone who doesn't understand what will happen when you stick your hand under a running mower should probably not be trusted to care for themselves, or we should stop protecting them and let nature run it's course and put a bit of bleach in the gene pool.

The flip side of this is if we was truly suffering from age related dementia or similar to a degree that common sense things like this are gone, he should not be left alone or unsupervised. Just like a small child. I don't say this to degrade him, but more than likely, all of us will reach this point and will need someone to care for us at some level.

I find it hard to believe that nobody noticed that his common sense was gone to a degree that he would do something like this. In that case, THEY are at fault for this happening.

If it was a 2 or 3 year old child that reached under a running mower while the parent/operator was not paying attention, everyone would be all over that parent/operator for not protecting the child. Same applies here, if that is the case.