Scary home accident---Grim Reaper will have to wait
 

I was out mowing my lawn down by my creek(lived 19 years on this property), since it had been not raining for 24 hours around here. I was backing up to turn around, when all of a sudden I found myself and the riding lawn mower falling backwards and to the left into the creek. About a 3 foot fall into 3 or so feet of water. Nothing outrageous.

When it all stopped, the lawn mower (600+ lbs) had trapped my left leg about at the calf to the creek bottom. The mower was almost 90 degrees on its side with the deck near perpendicular to where it should have been. I was propped up on my left arm and the water was just below my chin when I was looking up.

The water is friggin cold because it is spring feed and with all the rain it was running a bit high. As I was stuck there trying to ascertain my predicament and escape, I noticed why I was there, the bank had given away by about 2 feet from where it had been just seconds ago.

Yelling does no good around here, everybody is on 10 acres and most are either at work or on some power equipment themselves. I know I'm pretty much on my own.

Pushing with my right arm in short bursts as best I could, I was able to slightly reduce the pressure and work my leg towards the gap between the floorboard, deck and front tire.

Once there, I was able to get my leg out and climb out of the creek.....f***.

Two tractors and 2 slings and some head scratching, the mower was returned to the lawn where it does a better job than trying to mow water. Did a walk around and everything looked just fine.

I let it sit for about 10 minutes and fired it up with no problem. Well, it did smoke like an old 911 for about 10 minutes while the oil burned off that had drained into the exhaust. Mowed the rest of the lawn in another 3 hours and the mower did not miss a beat.

Lesson Learned: I usually always take my cell phone when I am away from the house a ways, or when I am working on the other side of the creek. I put it in my front pocket. I now am going to use our walkie talkies with velcro and attach it near my shoulder. The cell phone would have been toast and I don't think I would have been able to get it out in that situation. The walkie talkies we have are small, cheap, have good range and NO DIALING....push to Yell.

Casualties: Mp3 player is never going to work again. Back is sore as He**. Leg does not show anything or hurt at all.

Moral of story: Be more aware of my surroundings and thank my Irish luck. I know a lot of guys here have large properties and equipment, just be a bit more prudent and safe so we can all live to write about it.

Wow! That was a close call. Glad to hear you and the mower came out ok!

Damn that was close, almost lost a perfectly good mower. Glad you're OK. I keep my cell phone with me when weed wacking in case I get bit by a rattler. Also can't hear the wife if she calls me from the house, unless she uses the cell.

Glad you are OK. This sort if thing is always on my mind when I'm out on the property. My wife works for a life insurance company and one I her friend had to process a claim after a guy's mower slide into his pond and trapped him. He drowned.

Fixed it for you.

Wow man... glad it came out okay!

Got to scratch off one more of those nine lives. Nice ending to the tale with the mower finishing the job. Good heads up!

I can almost feel the rising feeling of panic all the way from here. Glad you got out of it!

Glad your luck was good & you got out OK. Just think, your nose could have been just below the water level instead of your chin being just above the water level. You were that close.

Cel might not work if wet.

Umm, be careful, we need all the pelicans we can get.



Here in NZ our biggest, most at risk, group for serious accidents and also dying are farmers and lifestyle block people.







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Somebody upstairs must like you. :)

When working in those conditions, the cell phone should be in a ziplock anyway.

Lol, well done hopping back on and finishing the yard.:)

I assume you didn't suck water into the intake?

Might want to change the oil.....glad you made it out OK....

That is a pretty scary story, just shows how easy it is to be put in that situation! I bet that got your heart pumping..... Just glad it turned out ok for you.

Wow - glad all is well. We have a family friend that had a rollover on a riding mower with bad consequences to his hand. Just another in a long line of reasons why I outsource yard work...

Nothing makes you feel more alone and vulnerable than what you described here. Glad to hear you weren't more seriously injured!

While reading that description, it was hitting a little too close to home. I lived on 10 acres for about 20 years and have a creek that I mow a little too close to at times with a big 4x4 diesel John Deere with a 72" mower and 52" front end loader that weighs about 3500 lbs with both attachments on it.

I have often thought that if it rolled, I would be under it in the creek, hopefully the big azz roll bar might save my life, but very likely I would be trapped under it.

So glad your situation turned out well, it could have been SO much worse.

One thing to note.... If your tractor as a ROPS it only does you any good if you buckle the damned seat belt. And yes I'm guilty of not doing it either...