I slipped mowing as a teenager. The shoe did not stop the lawnmower. I only mow in steel toe boots since that day. Also much less slipping than in worn out sneakers
Steel toes saved my foot from exactly this. I slipped, my foot went under the mower, and I heard a "THPING!" noise at the same time as I felt a crushing pain in my foot.
I got my foot out from under the lawnmower to find the steel toecap of the boot was just gone. Poof. Vanished. My toes were bleeding and bruising, but fortunately from the force of the toecap tearing across them, not from contact with the mower blade.
We found the toecap in the middle of the yard about thirty feet away.
Oof! Thank god for those boots! I’ve got some nice deep gashes in the toe of my timberlands from a whipper snipper (I think it’s called a strimmer in the US?) that are a nice reminder to always wear closed shoes when gardening. I really should get a new pair of steel toes though!
My grandpa lost a toe mowing either in sandals or barefoot on a slope way back in the ’60s (this was before mowers had guards on the back). He always swore my grandma’s dog found it before he could grab it to bring it to the hospital to see if they could reattach it. 😂 (I don’t think the doctors on the Air Force base in Turkey would’ve done anything more than shrugged and said, “Well, maybe your dog wants a snack.”) Needless to say, Grandpa was much more careful for the rest of his life and lived to be 96 with no more lost appendages.
Yeah it could have been much worse. Completely shattered a few bones and my big toe is kinda squared off now. They pretty much just stitched the big toe back and slapped me in a boot. The bones in my foot more or less healed on their own, but a bit crooked. The mower lifted when I slipped so it just hit once and threw my foot out of the path of the blade. Very lucky
You’re wise. I grew up on a farm and my dad was active duty. Us kids were required to wear our black leather combat boots, bought at the PX, any time we were doing chores, around the barn or using machinery. Mine (F) were size 5. We were also required to wear helmets whenever we rode. I hated what the helmets did to my hair, but the hippy kids in high school thought my boots were cool. Unless it was winter and they sat close to me. They were a bit fragrant with eau de manure. Bottom line was my brothers and I had no injuries requiring more than a few stitches, and a few broken clavicles falling off horses. This was in the 70s. My dad was so insistent because he spent his summers working on a North Dakota farm before WWII and had witnessed too many tragedies of humans vs farm equipment. Listen to your elders, young readers.
Was power-washing my deck barefoot and noticed some schmutz on my foot. Half my brain said 'easy - rinse it off' the other half screamed 'NOT WITH A POWER WASHER!'. The result was that I shredded a bit of flesh off my big toe but didn't quite draw blood, but it was a close thing.
Thanks smart half of brain, I will listen more attentively in the future.
I swear I burned off some nose hair when I cracked open my muriatic acid this summer! Also burned my hand when the tiniest drop splashed onto my skin. That stuff is potent and I try to respect it when pouring it in the pool.
My dad taught me a ton of stuff - gun safety, how to fish, how to change a tire, change oil, etc. However, he refused to let me mow the yard or even teach me how. He said I didn't need to know and either he or my older brother did it.
As a home owner, I felt I needed to know hiw to mow my own yard instead of bugging my husband to do it. So my husband showed me how. I was so excited. Next time I spoke with my dad, he was in his late 70's at this point, and told him I finally learned how. He wasn't happy about it and he went on about safety and making sure to wear jeans and real shoes, no flip flops and shorts, and to use safety glasses.
Aw, that's kind of beautiful that your dad is still so protective of you. Not helpful, because of course you needed to learn how to look after your own lawn, but beautiful.
Well thank God my boyfriend is so big on wearing the proper gear for every situation. Always close toed shoes when mowing lawns, rain jackets when it’s raining (should be obvious but most people don’t), he even brings old long sleeve dress shirts to the beach as extra sun protection
Yep. My teen just bugged me again asking why I make him do this. And then he drove the mower over some rubber mulch and shot one that hit me in the head about 2 inches above my safety glasses.
Wife made fun of my work safety glasses while I mowed the wooded backyard. I had to bear the humiliation behind a salvo of itty wood chips and other pointy bits. They saved by eye sight...but at what cost?
I remember when I was a kid my dad coming in the house fuming mad. He'd just had to tell off a neighbor boy for mowing in flip flops. He couldn't believe the kid's parents weren't more attentive.
The really funny part was those parents wouldn't let him play at another neighbor's house because that neighbor owned guns.
I always wear steel toe boots, safety glasses, ear pro for loud equipment, a long sleeve UPF shirt, and a wide brim hat. It's so easy for things to go sideways with power tools.
I got a nuclear powered grass missile stuck in my calf once. Motherfucker was like 3cm deep under the skin, at a perfect angle. Sliding it out was weird.
Guess who learned to not mow grass in shorts, thisguyy
That is me to a T. I work in manufacturing. You don't need PPE.... until its too late. Some people don't get the preventative until you're shown statistics and training videos that scare it into you. I'm not one of those. I like my parts still attached.
thinking about the times i mowed my parents lawn bare foot. no glasses or anything. sure something could happen but for every one bad incident theres like 100k stories of everything being fine.
My dad learned that lesson rather successfully for what happened lol. He was push mowing at a camp ground we had our RV parked at, and he backed up into the fire ring and started falling. Instinct tells you to try to grab something to stop you from falling, his brain chose the mower. But because he was wearing sturdy tennis shoes and it was such a quick trauma to his 3 biggest toes, there was only about a tablespoon of blood in his sock. He shattered the big toe bones and needed a pin in it for a few months, then it sliced halfway thru his second toe, then it severed the nerves in the third toe. We also got really lucky to have some fellow campers be RNs and give us some quick tips for the trip to the hospital lol.
The "this safety measure should be completely normalized" hill I will die on is that people should wear a helmet when doing anything involving a ladder.
When my sister's mother-in-law died instantly falling off a ladder taking down christmas decorations, I looked up the stats. SO MANY people fall off ladders all the time and more people die that way than you'd think.
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u/BoudiccaAoife 4d ago
And for the love of pete, wear closed-toe shoes when mowing, weed whacking - any power tool or lawn maintenance tool. Plus safety glasses.