Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

In todays paper 1-6-05 there was an article on snowblower hand injuries !!!
The American Society for Surgery of the Hand recommends that individuals take proper precautions to prevent hand-related injuries while removing snow this winter. In the early 70's American National Standards Institute (ANSI) passed regulations to require manufacturers to install a deadman control or kill switch. How ever old snowblowers didn't have a deadmans control nor an m-wire (what is m-wire, still youngster at 51 ha ha).
According to Consumer Product Safety Commission(CPSC) 2/3's of snowblower injuries involve fingers. Snowblower misuse is a leading cause of finger amputations !!!!!! In a 1999 study 3,546 injuries were snowblower injuries, of those about 3,000 involved hands and fingers INCLUDING 283 finger amputations!!!! On WTB forum it looked like we had just about 1,600 members, that study in 1999 would equate to every member getting his or her fingers in a snowblower accident TWICE !!!!
I know that some of you posters and guest readers know some-one, or heard of some-one that this has happened to.
We all need to apply the safe approach to snowblowing.
SOOOOOOO!!!! PLEASE !!! PLEASE !!! REMEMBER ALL THE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS OFYOUR SNOWBLOWER !!!!!!!!!
Visit www.handcare.org

Thanks for the safety reminder !

A couple safety ideas if you're snowblowin'' by the street...
Not EZ to be seen in a white plume of snow !

VISIBILITY !

How about a "saftey colored" vest ? See photo... ~$8-20...

I also have a flashing LED light on the blower's handlebars... made for bicycles... (no headlight on my machine)...
Got at box store ~$10...





Dave...

Dave - that is a great idea! Today Spokane got our first real storm of the winter (5 inches, 4 more on the way) and I was driving thru the neighborhood at 6:30 am and there was this MORON clearing the entire width of the street in front of his driveway in the dark, in dark clothes, with no headlight. I think he was the dad of the moron kid who skateboards in the dark down the center of the street at 10:00 pm. I should have run the dad over just to remove him from the gene pool.

I have several bike lights - I will mount one right away. Maybe one on each handlebar, and one for my head.....

John

I have another thing I would suggest. A pair of either safety glasses with side shields or tinted safety goggles. The secomd thing is hearing protection, I have a tube in my ear so its earmuffs for me but the foam ear plugs are effective and they really do protect the ears.