Fast, nimble and dangerous

For zero turn lawn mowers, the advantages of speed and maneuverability also raise the risk of sliding out of control

by

Chris Burritt

NW GUILFORD – Ben Weston would like to take those few seconds back four summers ago, the instant before an accident on a zero turn lawn mower almost ruined his dentistry career and, even worse, could have left him dead.

Riding mower accidents lead to thousands of injuries and several dozen deaths in the U.S. annually, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Weston’s accident illustrates how unexpectedly and quickly mishaps can occur.

As he mowed along the roadside in his Summerfield neighborhood, one of the mower’s front wheels slipped into a rut. The mower pivoted abruptly, propelled by the powerful engine down an embankment and then over a sheer six-foot drop into a creek bed. As the mower flipped and fell on top of Weston, he sank into the mud, possibly saving his life but not before shattering his left forearm.

“If the nerve had been severed, my career would have ended right then and there,” said Weston, who operates Summerfield Family Dentistry with his wife, Jenny. The accident in August 2019 put him out of work for one year, three months.

In hindsight, Weston realizes he was “getting comfy and careless” when mowing. His equipment was in the repair shop that day, so he had borrowed a neighbor’s zero turn mower, which he wasn’t familiar with.

Zero turn mowers have become increasingly popular among commercial lawn services and residential users because their maneuverability around trees and other obstacles can reduce mowing time by half compared to traditional lawn tractors, according to

“I could have died in 500 ways,” Weston said. “The fact that I came out alive… makes me walk around and click my heels together every day.”

Co. in Reidsville.

More than 17,000 injuries and 80 fatalities were associated with riding mowers and lawn tractors in the U.S. between 2015 and 2017, according to Sawinery, an independent website for woodworking and lawn care professionals, citing the Consumer Product

Safety Commission (CPSC). The statistics don’t break out accidents on zero turns.

Zero turn mowers are growing in popularity among commercial lawn services and residential users because their maneuverability around trees and other obstacles can reduce mowing

To Your Health

time by half compared to traditional lawn tractors, according to Scott Cook, owner of Scott’s Tractor & Equipment Co. in Reidsville.

With names such as “Bad Boy” and “Big Dog,” zero turn mowers have a macho appeal for some buyers.

“Your neighbor’s got one, and you’ve got to have one,” Cook said. “It’s like when four-wheel-drive trucks came out in the 1980s.”

Zero turn mowers ride lower to the ground than traditional lawn tractors, giving them a lower center of gravity that lessens the odds of turning over, Cook explained. A bigger risk is breaking, or losing, traction.

“Once you break traction, there’s really no correction for it,” he said. “When you break traction and start sliding, your automatic reaction is to try to correct it. So you’re probably going to reverse your wheels. But spinning the wheels backwards increases the problem.”

Some accidents occur when the ground gives way near ponds and lakes, Cook noted. Recently, his repair shop fixed a zero turn mower that had run into a pond. When the mower lost traction, the operator “just rode it into the water and swam out,” he said.

Fifteen years ago, a zero-turn operator in the Bethany community in southern Rockingham County died after being trapped under the water by his mower, Cook said. The machine turned over in a farm pond.

After his close call, Weston is especially cautious when he mows the 4 ½ acres around his Summerfield home.

“I stay on flat earth,” he said. “A lot of hazards are located on tricky slopes.”

He also follows another safety rule generally recommended by mower manufacturers.

“In the owner’s manual, it says stay one full mower deck away from any hazard, such as a ditch, curb or tree,” Weston said.

But beyond that, he recommends taking even greater precautions.

“Stay a good six feet away from hazards and thank yourself later,” he said. “You can go back later with a push mower and a weed eater. You are already saving so much time with a zero turn, don’t feel like you’ve got to save even more by taking risks.”

Zero turns are the mowers of choice for commercial lawn services and increasingly for homeowners such as Montgomery Kaufman.

“You can mow faster and turn quicker,” said Kaufman, who zips across his lawn in northwestern Greensboro on an orange Bad Boy mower with a cutting width of 54 inches.

He ignores manufacturers’ safety recommendations against mowing on a slope of greater than 15%. The roadside ditch in front of his house is steeper. Once he got stuck in the wet grass, requiring a friend to pull him out with a chain hooked to a pickup truck.

Now Kaufman cuts when the grass is dry. He mows in a see-saw fashion, going back and forth on both sides of the ditch to maintain his momentum.

The design of zero turn mowers makes such maneuverability possible. The machine derives its name from its ability to stop and turn around on the same spot.

That’s possible because each of the two treaded rear wheels is controlled independently by motors. The operator uses two handles on either side of the mower to control each wheel.

Pushing the handles forward causes the mower to go forward. Pulling them back makes the machine go backwards. Pushing one handle further ahead than the other – or pulling it further back –causes the mower to go left or right.

By contrast, traditional riding mowers rely on a steering wheel. Turning around requires the machine to travel in a circle, taking more time and traveling over areas already mowed.

Figuring out how to operate a zero turn mower is like learning to ride a bicycle, except that residential models of the machines can weigh as much as 800 pounds and commercial versions twice as much. In addition, unlike bicycles and traditional riding lawn mowers, zero turns don’t have brakes to stop them.

Instead, slowing and stopping a zero turn requires pulling the handles back together to a resting point for the machine.

Gauging the precise movement of the two front wheels is difficult. They pivot on casters so their rotation can alter the direction of the mower. They are slick and smaller than the rear tires so they provide little or no traction.

Peril looms in these maneuvers.

“Zero-turn mowers can flip over when going too fast, taking a turn too sharp, or changing directions too quickly,” according to Sawinery. “To keep this from happening, always slow down when you approach uneven terrains.”

Manufacturers recommend that operators study the owners’ manuals for their mowers and watch videos demonstrating how to use them safely. Even then, first-time users of zero turns may want to practice in an open area. In some ways, controlling the machine is counter intuitive, or at the least, requires a different way of thinking.

As an example, an operator who pushes the handles forward, as though he’s depressing a brake, will actually go forward.

The process of slowing and then stopping a zero turn typically requires a few seconds, enough time for the mower to start sliding down a slope. Stopping the slide is difficult, partly because of the weight of the mower.

“Once you lose control, you’re just along for the ride,” said Jim O’Hara, who uses a zero turn for mowing more than 20 yards in northwestern Guilford County.

Galileo Vasquez, the owner of Kernersville-based Galo Lawn Service, mows slopes with the more powerful, heavier of his two zero turns for the extra traction.

Recently mowing a hillside in northwestern Greensboro, Vasquez said he also avoids mowing inclines when the grass is wet.

In Oak Ridge, the parks and recreation crew mows the Town Park athletic fields and other grassy areas with two zero turn mowers. About 15 years ago, a part-time employee mowed too close to the pond and the front of the mower went into the water, according to Terry Lannon, the town’s parks and recreation director.

Now, the mower with knobbier tires is used to cut around the pond.

“It gets a better grip,” Lannon said.