Riding Lawn Mowers

Some 9,300 people are injured each year in riding lawn mower accidents – including 2,000 children under the age of 10. Riding lawn mower accidents kill 15 children a year. A simple change in manufacturing design, urged for years by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), could prevent many of these deaths and injuries.

According to the AAP’s committee on injury and poison prevention, lawn mower injuries to children are “highly preventable” if only manufacturers would do two things:

• Require that all riding lawnmowers be designed so that when they are backing up, the blades automatically disengage. Called a “No Mowing in Reverse” (NMIR) option, this standard is voluntary and not all models have it;


• Position the NMIR button at the back of the mower so that the operator has to turn all the way around in his seat to engage it, allowing him to see what is behind him.

Doctors have been urging these simple, common sense changes for a decade. Why don’t the manufacturers make these simple changes and start saving lives?

Does your riding lawn mower have these simple safety devices? If not, join us in urging the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to make these safety devices compulsory and not voluntary on all riding mowers. File your complaint at http://www.cpsc.gov/talk.html

More information

Consumer Reports on lawn mower injuries

Lawmower injuries in children: a 10-year experience (Abstract)