If a loved one has been a victim of a riding lawn mower fatality, contact wrongful death lawyer John Gehlhausen for a case evaluation. Our attorney provides the experienced and compassionate representation families need in their time of grief.
Why don't many manufacturers equip their riding lawn mowers with the appropriate safety devices?
Manufacturers are interested in keeping their production costs to a minimum. For that reason, the choice not to use proven safety devices is seen as an acceptable cost-cutting alternative…
What are the major causes of riding lawn mower accidents?
When used on a ditch bank or incline, a riding lawn mower can cause injury or death if it rolls over and pins or crushes the rider beneath its weight...
Over the course of his career, attorney John Gehlhausen has repeatedly seen the emotional and financial devastation caused by riding lawn mower accidents. In many cases, the families of wrongful death victims face not only the loss of companionship of their loved ones, but they may also suffer from financial hardships resulting from victims' deaths. At the Law Offices of John Gehlhausen, P.C., our riding lawn mower wrongful death lawyer is a vocal advocate for lawn mower safety and a harsh critic of the lax standards to which manufacturers are held. More often than not, a riding lawn mower injury or fatality could have been avoided if even only the basic safety equipment had been installed.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an annual average of 95 fatalities was attributed to riding lawn mowers during 2001–2003. Sadly, many of these deaths, and those since, could most likely have been prevented had the mowers been equipped with the proper safety devices. Many manufacturers do not include such devices, preferring instead to exclude them as a means to lower production costs or because they believe that after so many years of producing machines without proper safety equipment, to do so now would be an admission of guilt. Regardless of the reasons, too many men, women, and children involved in riding lawn mower accidents have become victims of wrongful death due to the danger these machines represent.
A riding lawn mower rollover fatality typically results from a foreseeable accident. Without the proper rollover protection system, riding lawn mowers are by definition defective. Both a lap restraint and a roll bar would keep an individual from being crushed beneath the weight of the machine or pinned beneath the water if it rolled into a creek or pond. Yet, many mower models do not come with such features as standard equipment.
Many of the victims in riding lawn mower accidents are children involved in back-over accidents. Most back-over accidents could be avoided with an inexpensive no-mow-in-reverse switch that disengages the blades when the mower is in reverse. Like rollover injuries and fatalities, the danger riding lawn mowers present is a foreseeable one, but manufacturers are still resistant to equipping their machines with those safety devices that have been shown to effectively prevent a great many of the more serious injuries.
Though compensable damages vary from state to state, most often families are able to pursue compensation for funeral and burial expenses, loss of companionship and support, and punitive damages when a riding lawn mower accident causes a wrongful death. Lawyer John Gehlhausen will help grieving family members obtain compensation for their loss and justice on behalf of their loved ones.
If an accident involving a riding lawn mower has caused the wrongful death of a loved one, lawyer John Gehlhausen can help you and your family through this difficult time. When a riding lawn mower accident results in a fatality, surviving family members are often impacted by significant emotional and financial hardships. Our experienced and compassionate attorney will use the full resources of his firm to help you attain complete compensation for medical costs, funeral expenses, loss of companionship, and other difficulties you face. Contact the Law Offices of John Gehlhausen, P.C., to schedule a consultation with our attorney. We understand your pain. You don't have to suffer alone.