About 110,000 people get injured by lawn mowers in the US each year. On average, about 800 of these are children who get run over by lawn mowers or small tractors, and one out of every five lawn mower-related deaths involves a child. The top ways people get injured by lawn mowers are by making contact with the machine’s blade, being hit by propelled objects such as rocks or sticks, having it overturn onto the operator on an incline or being run over. People also can be injured if they come into contact with the lawn mower's engine, which get hot enough to cause third-degree burns.
More about lawn mower safety:
- A lawn mower’s steel blade rotates about 2,000 times per minute at a speed of up to 200 miles (321.87 km) per hour.
- To prevent child-related lawn mower accidents, experts recommend that children younger than 12 do not use push mowers and must be at least 16 before using riding mowers.
- The energy put forth by a lawn mower blade coming into contact with a limb is roughly equivalent to that of a bullet shot out of a .357 magnum pistol.
