Contact attorney John Gehlhausen for information about riding mower and garden tractor accidents. Machines lacking the proper safety devices can cause injuries, death, and hardship for surviving family members.
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What compensation can I receive for my riding lawn mower accident?
The Law Offices of John Gehlhausen, P.C. will fight to help victims recover lost support, funeral expenses, medical-related expenses, and lost wages, as well as compensation for pain and suffering, lost companionship and other hardships...
What are the major causes of riding lawn mower accidents?
When used on ditch banks or inclines, riding lawn mowers can roll over and pin or crush the rider beneath their weight...
The possibility of riding mower and garden tractor rollover accidents, injuries, and death exists for every riding mower. No one can predict with absolute accuracy where and under what conditions the machine will be used or by whom during its useful life. In the following article, riding mower accident attorney John Gehlhausen explains that any manufacturer who claims otherwise is misleading the consumer. A responsible manufacturer should acknowledge the possibility of rollover accidents and install the proper safety equipment on their machines to protect whoever may be the operator.. If you or a loved one has been injured in a riding mower rollover accident and is considering a claim against the manufacturer, please contact the Law Offices of John Gehlhausen, P.C., to schedule a consultation.
THE MYTH THAT RIDING MOWER ROLLOVERS CAN BE TOTALLY AVOIDED
By: John Gehlhausen
Riding Mower Accident Product Liability Attorney
The riding mower manufacturing industry, in its effort to excuse its own failure to install rollover protection safety frame systems on its riding mowers as standard equipment, claims that all you need to do to operate the mower safely is to remember each and every warning listed in the operator’s manual and avoid any others hazards or dangers that it fails to mention. This is impossible. No one can remember all of these warnings and keep them constantly in mind when operating these machines. No one can predict every situation in which a riding mower will be used; one simply cannot avoid all the combinations of man, machine, and environment that can result in a rollover. One manufacturer even admits in its operator’s manual that all situations which can result in a rollover cannot be predicted.
Imagine a situation in which a buyer purchases a riding mower to use on a perfectly flat yard with no embankments or drop offs. This operator may believe that there is no danger of rolling over whatsoever. But at some point in time this owner will likely need to take this lawn tractor to a shop for repairs. Normally, an operator will drive the mower up a ramp onto the back of a flat bed truck or trucker to transport it to the repair shop. While very few people envision this activity as one that could lead to a rollover, numerous instances of just such an event have occurred. When one side of the ramp collapses, or when the operator–in a split second– accidentally gives the machine too much power causing it to roll over backward, or when, because of a second of accidental over-steering or a mechanical failure, the riding mower tumbles off the side of the ramp, the operator is caught in the very situation he or she thought easy to avoid.
No one can predict the future. People borrow riding mowers; they get sold; they are inherited. Lawn mower manufacturers admit that if the mower is capable of moving, it is capable of rolling over. Rollovers have happened because of mechanical failure in the steering or power systems. The only practical means of protection when these rollovers happen is a rollover protective system on the riding mower.
Riding mower and garden tractor rollover accidents have always happened with resulting injuries or deaths. Victims and their families may consider filing a claim if the manufacturer of the riding mower or garden tractor has not installed the proper safety devices. Contact attorney John Gehlhausen to learn more about filing an injury claim and recovering compensation.