4-year-old child is being treated at Nationwide Children’s Hospital following lawnmower accident

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WASHINGTON C.H — A 4-year-old boy whose right arm was severely injured in a lawnmower accident Friday in Washington C.H. is still being treated at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus.

Police and Fayette County Children Services are investigating the incident that was reported to the Washington Police Department at 4:05 p.m. Friday. The child had been riding on a zero turn style mower with an adult, according to WPD Sgt. Matt Pfeifer.

“The child fell off of the left side of the mower when it was turning right, at which time he suffered the injury to his right arm,” Pfeifer said Friday. “This incident was very unfortunate. We are not releasing any names at this time and only know that the child’s current condition is critical.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the child’s condition has reportedly improved.

Officers and Fayette EMS personnel were dispatched to the dead-end of Ely Street near the Deskins Storage lockers and found an adult holding a small child on his lap. The adult had wrapped a leather belt around the top portion of the child’s arm to serve as a tourniquet, reports said. His face was covered with a t-shirt so that he couldn’t see the severity of his injury.

EMS personnel took the child to Fayette County Memorial Hospital and he was later transported by MedFlight to Nationwide Children’s.

A man at the scene told police that the child had been riding with him all day while he and another man mowed a nearby field. The man explained that as they were approaching the area where two small fields connect, the other man drove his mower to the field on the left and he turned to mow the field on the right.

As he turned right, the child “partially stood up and was thrown off the left side of the zero turn mower,” reports said. The boy reached out his right hand as he fell and his hand went underneath the mower deck. The man said they immediately stopped mowing, picked up the child to tend to his injury and called 911, according to reports.

More information will be released once the police and Children Services investigations are complete. No charges have been filed yet in this matter.

Lawnmower incident under investigation by police, Children Services

By Ryan Carter

[email protected]

Mower safety: Pay attention

More attention needs to be paid to lawn mower safety to avoid accidents to the operator and children. Needless limb loss accidents can be prevented by taking simple commonsense precautions, according to the Amputee Coalition (amputee-coalition.org).

Depending on where you live in the U.S., you may mow your lawn 30 times or more this year. Every time you start your mower, you are dealing with a dangerous and potentially deadly piece of equipment.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission statistics are shocking: Each year, 800 children are run over by riding mowers or small tractors and more than 600 of those incidents result in amputation; 75 people are killed, and 20,000 injured; one in five deaths involves a child. For children under age 10, major limb loss is most commonly caused by lawn mowers.

The Amputee Coalition offers these safety guidelines:

• First and foremost: Keep your children indoors and do not allow other children to play nearby while you are mowing.

• Never allow children to play on a lawn mower, even if it is turned off.

• Never allow a child to ride on a riding lawn mower with you.

Before starting your lawn mower, use this simple Amputee Coalition checklist, based on information from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Keep this checklist in your garage or near your mowing equipment. It only takes a minute to prevent disaster.

Before mowing

• Pick up stones, toys and debris from the lawn to prevent injuries from flying objects.

• Wear shoes, not sandals.

• Use eye and hearing protection.

• Start and refuel mowers outdoors, never in a garage.

• Refuel with the motor turned off and cool.

• Blade settings – Adults only!

While mowing

• For push mowers: Only use mowers with automatic shut-off abilities, such as those with a control that stops motion when the handle is released.

• For riding mowers: Make sure your riding mower’s safety feature includes an automatic shut-off when the rider is not in the seat.

• Don’t mow in reverse.

After mowing

• Turn off lawn mower completely. Do not remove the grass catcher or unclog the discharge chute unless the lawn mower is off.

Parents: Explain the dangers of lawn mowers and their safe operation. Follow these simple precautions and set a good example for children.

Reach Ryan Carter at 740-313-0352 or on Twitter @rywica

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