Safety tips for lawn mowing

Brad Jones, president of Belleville-based The Jones Boys Inc., which sells and services lawn mowers, offers the following safety tips for cutting grass with a riding lawn mower:

▪  Make sure the gas cap is not leaking.

▪  Keep all the safety switches hooked up and operational because if a rollover occurs, you want the engine to stop. Lawn mower blades can turn at over 200 mph.

▪  Don’t take hills that are too steep, most manufacturers recommend a maximum of 15 degrees to 20 degrees of slope.

▪  If you can’t walk up a hill, you shouldn’t mow it.

▪  There are mowers that can handle “steeper” hills. Check the owner’s manual.

▪  If it a hill is too steep, put in some ground cover or just let grow.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration offers these tips about riding lawn mower safety:

▪  If your mower has a roll-over protective structure, wear a seat belt while riding the mower.

▪  Do not operate a mower that has had a roll-over protection structure removed.

▪  Use a slope indicator to determine the slope angle of a hill. You can download a printable version from OSHA.gov.

This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Safety tips for lawn mowing."