Contact our firm to learn more about the dangers posed by the use of a zero-turn-radius rotary mower or conventional front-engine riding mower. Accident victims can schedule a free case evaluation with our experienced attorney.
Who can be held liable for my riding lawn mower accident?
Riding lawn mower attorney John Gehlhausen believes that manufacturers' reluctance to equip their machines with the proper safety equipment is one of the chief reasons why so many accidents continue to occur...
What are the most common injuries sustained in riding lawn mower accidents?
Due to the weight of riding lawn mowers, in rollover accidents, victims are likely to suffer broken bones and dislocations, and even asphyxia...
Though they have made lawn care more convenient, many riding lawn mowers' lack of standard safety devices has contributed to the steady increase of serious injuries and wrongful deaths resulting from rollover, back-over, and other accidents. At the Law Offices of John Gehlhausen, P.C., our attorney has amassed an impressive record of trial verdicts and settlements while representing riding lawn mower accident victims. An outspoken critic of the lax safety standards applied to manufacturers, Mr. Gehlhausen has dedicated a major portion of his legal career to holding manufacturers liable for their blatant negligence.
The technology behind riding lawn mowers has helped to make routine lawn maintenance easier and less time-consuming. Whereas once riding lawn mowers were used mostly by commercial landscapers and gardeners, today they have become more and more popular in residential lawn care. The residential mowers currently in use fall into two categories: the conventional front-engine riding mower and the zero-turn-radius (ZTR) rotary mower.
A front-engine riding mower is a self-propelled, single-person vehicle used predominantly for cutting lawns one-half to one acre in size. These types of mowers are popular with seniors because of their ease of use and their ability to cover a large area of ground much more quickly than traditional push mowers.
One of the popular attachments used on many front-engine riding mowers is the optional grass catcher. Though convenient for disposing of cut grass, this particular attachment obstructs the riders' rear view and is a factor in many back-over accidents where riders have been unable to see small children playing directly behind their mowers. For this reason, many children are inadvertently struck while mowers are being operated in reverse. The shear bulk and weight of a riding lawn mower is enough to cause serious injuries. Far more dangerous, however, is a machine without a no-mow-in-reverse switch. The NMIR device disengages a mower's blades while in reverse. Unfortunately, many front-engine mowers do not have this device included as standard equipment. Consequently, many back-over accidents result in severe lacerations, severed limbs, and deaths.
Throughout his career, attorney John Gehlhausen has remained a vocal critic of many manufacturers' apparent lack of concern for consumer safety. He continues to fight for justice for accident victims while promoting an increased awareness of the need for universal riding lawn mower safety requirements.
Unlike the 4 to 28 inches that a conventional front-engine riding mower requires to complete a 180-degree turn, the zero-turn-radius (ZTR) rotary riding mower is able to make a turn of equal degree upon its own track. Additionally, zero-turn-radius mowers are built to provide increased power and speed.
Once used almost exclusively for commercial lawn maintenance, especially in parks and on golf courses, zero-turn-radius riding mowers are quickly replacing conventional front-engine mowers as the choice in residential lawn care equipment. Their enhanced maneuverability makes them ideal for close cutting near trees and shrubs, in corners and other tight areas. Unfortunately, the increased convenience provided by these machines does not equate to increased safety. In fact, zero-turn-radius rotary mowers are more susceptible to rollover accidents than any other type of riding lawn mower.
In a perfect world, riding mowers would be used on flat, stable surfaces. The reality is, however, that the terrain these machines are used to maintain is often uneven and presents riding mowers with the very real and predictable risk of rollover. One of the crucial safety devices necessary to ensuring riders' safety, the rollover protection system is only optional equipment on many mowers. Consisting of a lap restraint and roll bar, the ROPS is intended to secure riders within a sphere of safety and prevent them from being thrown from their mowers where they can be crushed or struck by the mowers' turning blades.
Most types of riding lawn mower accidents are foreseeable, and those machines that are not equipped with standard safety devices are, by law, defective. Still manufacturers continue to ignore their responsibility to consumers and produce mowers without these standard safety devices. Attorney John Gehlhausen continues to fight to hold manufacturers accountable for their negligent disregard for consumer safety while helping riding lawn mower accident victims obtain the compensation they deserve.
Individuals who use either a conventional front-engine riding mower or a zero-turn-radius rotary mower often find routine lawn care to be a more convenient, and even enjoyable, chore. What many fail to recognize is that these machines can be very dangerous, even deadly, due to the negligent lack of concern for safety on the part of their manufacturers. Riding lawn mower accidents happen nearly every day, and many could be prevented if the proper safety devices were included as standard equipment. Attorney John Gehlhausen is an authority on riding lawn mower accidents, and he is dedicated to helping victims obtain the compensation they deserve. Contact the Law Offices of John Gehlhausen, P.C., to learn more about riding lawn mower safety.