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Summer is here. Grass is growing. Time to break out the lawn mower -- but be careful!
Every year, more people are getting injured by lawn mowers. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 83,291 people were injured by lawn mowers in 2011. Of those people injured, 3,780 were children under the age of 14.
If you're injured by a lawn mower, can you sue?
Lawn mowers may seem harmless, but they are dangerous heavy machinery. There are a plethora of ways a user or bystander can be injured by a lawn mower, such as:
Avoiding Injuries
Here are some tips to avoid lawn mower injuries:
Sometimes, lawn mower injuries may be unavoidable because of a defect in the mower's design.
For example, in one case, an 88-year-old man was killed when a defective fuel tank caused the lawn mower to explode while he was riding it.
In another case, a father sued the manufacturer of a lawn mower after he backed over his daughter, causing her severe injury. The father argued that the lawn mower was defective because it did not have proper safety precautions that would have prevented him from injuring his daughter.
In both cases, the manufacturers were sued for product liability. In the first case, the jury awarded the victim's family $2.5 million dollars. In the second case, the parties settled for a confidential amount.
More often than not, lawn mower injuries are caused by improper use or user error rather than a product defect. While you may sue the manufacturer, evidence of your own negligence in handling the lawn mower could reduce your recovery or prevent you from recovering any money at all.
Also, if your negligent handling of a lawn mower caused someone else injury, you could be sued for negligence.
This summer, be extra careful when operating a lawn mower, and if you are sued or injured, consult with an experienced personal injury attorney for help.
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