On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 09:25:26 -0500, warrenbo
wrote:

Salty Thumb wrote:

(J. Del Col) wrote in
Running with a reel mower --or any lawn mower-- is akin to running
with scissors.

Do you know of any specific risk factors or are you just being
prudent? It may well be a stupid idea, but I can't see how it could be
more dangerous than 3.5 horses or running with a baby jogger.

The contents of a baby jogger are probably more dangerous than a lawn
mower, but for very different reasons, mostly psychological and
emotional damage caused when the baby is about 12-15 years older.

The big danger with running with a push mower is that they are prone to
jam or stall on onseen junk -- something the dog or the neighbor's kid
or even you dropped and didn't see until it was too late. If you're
running behind one, there's a decent chance you'll end up tripping
yourself up and landing on it.

I've tripped badly a couple of times jogging over the years, and I
wouldn't like to think what it would be like if I had landed on a
lawnmower instead of dirt.

I guess they would jam if a twig or object got stuck in the blades.
But the thing is that they won't cut grass that is too long. So
you'll never be in that situation where you're mowing through a forest
that can easily conceal these objects.

Considering that they're heavy and awkward and have protruding metal
bars and such, you could really mess up your knee or shin or ankle or
wrist or face.

Which mowers are you looking at?

There's also the risk of slipping on a wet patch of grass or mud and
getting a toe or finger caught in the blades. I'd say that's less
likely, but it's another risk.

Might be true with the old ones. But the ones nowadays are pretty
darn slick. It is virutally impossible to get a toe (assuming you're
wearing a show) caught in it. And the the housing covers up enough of
it that even fingers would be difficult to stick in there.

The other good thing is that they stop as soon as you stop pushing
them. They won't roll for another few feet. They pretty much just
stop dead which also stops the blades

Yes there's always the possibility of one hurting themselves. Heck,
it's possible to hurt yourself with a Nerf ball if you think about it
hard enough. But of any machine that has a cutting blade, i'd say
reel mowers are the safest i've ever seen.