Another case where some smart attorney will find a way to get big bucks out of the manufacturer, seller, and anybody in contact with the case!
Will they sue the victims? I hardly think so! Will a gift of a large sum of MONEY make the survivors feel any better? Will the attorneys sue the person who disconnected the safety switch? (The mfgr. should have anticipated the disconnect of the switch, and made it impossible to disable or remove it!)
And, with the succesful prosecution of the case, and putting the blame squarely on the heads of the firm that made the tractors, and all of their suppliers, (their fault or not), and not on the disconnector, Will a very large award of MONEY assuage the guilt, if any, of the person at fault??
NO!
But, they'll be able to buy a new house, a new hi-end car or truck, and roll in the dough, forgetting whoever it was, who got hurt or killed!
And there will be another round of making things harder to repair.
How about this: Why don't the mfgrs. make those switches inaccessible to future owners? Can they wire the switches inside a steel housing, or run all wiring thru steel housings, so when they go bad, you'll have to buy a new machine! And that would forestall any overriding or disconnecting any safety switches in the future!
And, all of those posters in this forum, who tell others how to disable the safety switches on their machinery, should share some of the blame!
Yes, they are a pain in the neck, BUT---
End of rant, by Rusty Jones

agree.......

Wow rusty, you already know exactly what happened? You got that all laid out.
Could the switch have NOT been bypassed? Perhaps it just quit working on it's own. How old was the mower? Did it have a kill switch? Is a nine year old less safe on a mower than a 15 year old? What happens at that age, they wake up one morning and all of a sudden Wham!- they are now safe on a mower? *No one is safe all the time.
You even figured out their future- new home, new car, rolling in money. *Let's forget the lawyers and courts will get the money.
I know your thinking hypothetically, but you left out the part where the boy grows up to become a rich politician who passes more laws dealing with mowers. Perhaps licensing before buying one, making it a felony to allow anyone under 18 ride it, have it inspected every year, reguire that it be locked up when not in use and dissabled, take 8 hrs of continued education annualy. That's what we need- more laws.
People don't always do the right thing and they suffer for it and no law is going to change that. There are already millions of laws on the books, and not one of them kept this from happening and another law still won't. If we made enough laws to Completely protect all of us from everything in the world, we will have reduced ourselves to drones where just living would be criminal.
Responsibility and common sense would be the easier way. but that still wouldn't prevent anything from happening all of the time- that's being Human.
Maybe we should just be glad the boy is alright and learn from this in our own way.
:)

I didn't see any mention of a 'seat switch' . . . . am I missing something - Was there more to the article that I didn't read or are we jumping to conclusions? How do we know that there even was a seat switch, let alone that someone had bypassed it?

These accidents aren't all that common . . . . not nearly as common as discussions about bypassing seat switches are around here

I agree that 9 is a little young to most of us, but as you say, things are much different in farming comunities

Don

Yeah, What rustyj14 said,and a little of daddo8's comments.

More than likely, it was no fault of the machine, whether the safety switches were disabled or whatever. Somebody disabled them, if indeed they were disabled. The responsibility, lies with the kid and the parents, most likely. The kid can't be expected to have a mature grasp on common sense, but than again, many adults have little common sense.

If the seat blew up and ejected him 30 feet into the air and he landed in the path of the mower, it certainly would deserve another look.

It reminds me of the story of the guy with the new Winnebago.
Supposedly, he put it on cruise control and went to the back to make a sandwich. Of course it crashed and he sued Winnebago, and won. They supposedly were required, afterward, to attach a warning to the dash about "cruise control". It should have said, "Don't operate, if you have no common sense!".

Even beyond all else, accidents do happen and most could be prevented.

The only way to thwart persons who would disable safety interlock systems is to mandate that ALL OPE be fitted with an Electronic Control Module that monitors all functions of the machine including any tampering or bypassing of inhibitor circuits and switches. This ECM would be liked via satellite to an Operation Monitoring Center at the Original Equipment Manufacture that would respond to any signals transmitted from the ECM indicating that tampering was being, or had been done to the safety interlock system. The Operations Monitoring Center would notify the local police authority having jurisdiction in the place where the OPE was being operated. Police would then go the scene of the crime, arrest the operator of the OPE, and confiscate the unsafe OPE as evidence in prosecuting the offender. OR, we could all wish that people would just grow a brain and use it. I think the first scenario has a better chance of coming true. :^) LOL

Mownie,hate to say it but you're probably right about the first scenario having a better chance. Yes I was driving a tractor when I was nine years old, grew up on a farm, but Dad had schooled me completely about operating one before I ever sat on the seat and watched me like a hawk till he was sure I was OK on it. COMMON SENSE and useing it prevents most accidents.

I have read and reread the original post and the published story several times. I find NO evidence of tampering with a seat switch or any safety interlock in any of the stories. Even with safety switches all working, blades don't stop instantly and bad things happen awfully fast when you fall off of a mower. I hope the boy is going to be OK. I think we could ratchet down the retoric a notch or two.
steve
Steve

It just said he was riding it. It didn't even say he was by himself. He could have been riding with his dad or someone else.

I echo what sadixon49 says. I read & re-read the article (after having to dig it up) and it says nothing about anything except it was a lawn mower accident, brief description of the injuries and what emergency treatment procedures were afforded the injured boy. Since we seem to be reading so much between the lines here, has it occurred to anybody the (heaven forbid) boy was riding (as in "passenger") on the machine while another person operated or drove the mower? The story only says the boy was injured when he fell off a lawn mower he was riding. Does not say he was "operating". Of course, to some "journalists", the terms would be interchangable. I have included a clickable link to the story in case anybody has not read the article yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: 9 year old boy injured

I did not read the article and won't comment on it, but
will say if you try to idiot proof everything, they'll just go and build a better idiot!

Stepping out of an automobile while the engine is running --. What is the answer to my question as to how to check something on my mower beyond my reach, with no one to assist and the engine running? Many of the answers to posters' questions require a second person or a disabled seat switch. Why shouldn't I operate my riding mower in reverse? There are no children within 15 miles and no one is on my land except for my wife who is in the house and does not come out? If the parents knew the child was operating the machinery then they surely knew of the potential problems, and were willing to bet their child wouldn't have a problem. What seat switch? Was the child injured by the moving/cutting mower?

i think the number 1 response to this article is everyone here asking what you can do to educate the people around you about this.

my brother in law lets my 7 year old drive his mower when my son is over there. i have repeatidly asked him not to, but i cant stop the kid from seeing his grandparents.

once he let him drive is a mile down the road to my other brother in laws house. my son was driving mower, with BIL behind him in his truck. what if he drove down into the ditch? what if a speeding motorist lost control? there are so many unknowns that can happen in an instant.

i do not let my children ride on it with me, nor do i let them drive it. they are too young to be able to react to a situation like (most) adults would.

the only exception is *IF* i have the deck off, i will let them ride in my dump cart, but only at low speeds (gears 1,2,or 3). i dont even allow them out in the backyard when i am mowing. ive seen whata a blade can shoot and how far it can shoot it. parents need to be educated that children under 16 should not be operating macheriny like this. even 4 wheelers, motorized scooters, dirtbikes, etc. the vast majority of accidents are with children.