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14 Lawn Mower Accident Statistics in Canada: 2024 Update
Pete Ortiz
Last updated:
Note: This article’s statistics come from third-party sources and do not represent the opinions of this website.
Lawn mowers are essential tools that are used by millions of people each year. Lawn mowers are also dangerous. The spinning blades and automatic propulsion can lead to some extremely unfortunate incidents. Canadians generally mow their lawns less than Americans do. This is due to a number of environmental factors, but they still receive a large number of reports involving lawn mower accidents. Here are 14 fascinating statistics regarding lawn mower accidents in Canada.
The data used in this article is compiled from public databases operated by the Canadian government. The data is compiled by the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP), which intakes hospital records from the largest hospitals in Canada. The records are then parsed and disseminated into easily digestible data. CHIRPP is the single best resource for tracking statistics in Canada involving accidents and injuries. The data in this article is taken from various CHIRPP databases, with years ranging from 2004 to 2018. The most recent data was compiled and published in 2018, and no more recent data has yet been made available.
Children ages 15 and under tend to suffer more severe injuries than adults.
The most common injury for children involving lawn mowers is burns.
The second most common injury for children is being run over or tripping over the mower.
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Lawn Mower Accident Frequency
1. There are 73 unintentional lawn mower related accidents in Canada per year.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
The average number of reported lawn mower accidents requiring medical treatment in Canada is just 73 per year on average. Some years have more injuries than others, like a stretch between 2003 and 2004 that saw 94 serious injuries reported (CBC). Overall, the number of lawn mower accidents resulting in injury in Canada is extremely low.
Image Credit: Skitterphoto, Pexels
2. The rate of lawn mower accidents in Canada is 57 in 100,000 hospital records.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
The rate of lawn mower accidents is just 57 out of 100,000 hospital cases which translates to just .57 per 1,000. Like the overall number of lawn mower related accidents, the rate of accidents is extremely low. For comparison, there were over 225,000 injury-related hospitalizations in 2018/2019 in Canada. At the same rate, just 114 of those 225,000 injuries would be related to lawn mowers.
3. Canada has a very small number of lawn mower accidents compared to the United States.
(CBC)
The number of injuries relating to lawn mowers in Canada is much lower than that in the United States. The United States saw a whopping 80,000 injuries relating to lawn mowers in 2004 alone. Even accounting for population differences, the rate is still far lower than in the United States. Canada has roughly nine times fewer people than the United States. Using the rate of injury in the United States, Canada would be expected to see over 8,000 annual injuries, but that is not the case.
The discrepancy is largely due to a much shorter mowing season in Canada than in the United States. This is because of cooler weather and different grasses, as well as the much smaller number of adults who are out mowing the lawn.
Types of Injury
4. 71% of lawn mower accident cases receive treatment in the emergency room.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
Injuries that can be treated in the emergency room are generally considered mild. These types of injuries include lacerations, basic fractures, and severe bruises. That means that the majority of lawn mower injuries in Canada can be resolved without the need for long term treatment or hospitalization.
Image Credit: Louiesharpe, Pixabay
5. 15% of lawn mower accident cases in Canada require hospitalization to resolve.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
However, 15% of injuries do require hospitalization to resolve. These injuries are often more serious and include infections, complications, and amputations. These injuries require days or weeks of treatment to resolve and are the most serious type of injury that can occur while using a lawn mower.
6. 26% of lawn mower accidents involve lacerations to the hands or feet due to contact with the blades.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
Most injuries happen when people accidentally make contact with the lawn mower blades. In 15% of cases, the blades strike a person while the lawn mower is running, often due to tripping during operation. In 11% of cases, people cut themselves on the blades while repairing or servicing their lawn mowers. This occurs while putting your hand under the mower, often when you can’t see the blades and accidentally bump into the sharp edges.
Image Credit: Ocskay Mark, Shutterstock
7. 17% of lawn mower accidents resulting in injury occurred when the lawn mower was off.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
Surprisingly, a good portion of injuries occur while the lawn mower is off. The most common injuries to happen when the lawn mower is off involve servicing the blades at home or moving the lawn mower. Moving a lawn mower into a shed or the back of a truck can cause soft tissue damage, strained muscles, crushing, and bruising. The other 83% of injuries typically take place while the lawn mower is in operation.
8. Extremities are the most common body part to be injured by a lawn mower, including hands, feet, fingers, and toes.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
The vast majority of injuries occur to extremities. These injuries include minor cuts and severe injuries like foot amputations. 49% of reported injuries in Canada are related to hands, feet, fingers, and toes. The second most common body part to be injured is the head and neck area, which also includes cuts to the face. The most common way to injure the head and neck area is by being struck by a projectile during use.
Image Credit: Virrage Images, Shutterstock
9. The average patient in Canada presented with 1.25 injuries per incident.
(Canada Safety Council)
There is a higher rate of reported injuries than the number of recorded patients. That means that patients are presenting multiple injuries per visit. This could include multiple cuts, bruises, or a variety of different injuries. If someone gets into a severe incident involving a lawn mower, it is not uncommon for them to receive multiple injuries. Each injury is reported separately, which results in a greater number of injuries than patients.
Demographics of Those Injured
10. The highest rate of injuries happens to people ages 50 to 64.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
The highest rate of injury occurs in middle-aged people between the ages of 50 and 64. This is likely due to two factors. First, this is the demographic that likely mows their lawn the most (young people do not own houses at the same rate as middle-aged people). Second, older people are at a higher risk of injury overall, not just lawn mowing injuries. The second highest rate of injuries occurs in people ages 40 to 50 and then in people 64 and older. The lowest rate of injuries occurs in people ages 20 to 40.
Image Credit: Cliff Day, Shutterstock
11. The majority of lawn mower injuries happen to people over the age of 40.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
Using the data, we can see a sharp divide when it comes to the rate of lawn mower injuries. People 40 and younger have much smaller rates of injury (less than 100 reported injuries per 100,000 cases) compared to people over the age of 40 (300 reported injuries per 100,000 cases). That means that people under the age of 40 are three times less likely to be injured than people over the age of 40. That marks a very visible line of demarcation that can be used to track risk factors surrounding lawn mowing in general.
12. Children ages 15 and under tend to suffer more severe injuries than adults.
(Canada Safety Council)
While children under the age of 15 have a very small rate of injury compared to adults, the injuries they receive are often more severe than older people. Children commonly receive burns and deep lacerations that take longer to heal than adults. A lawn mower blade striking a child is likely to cause more damage than a blade striking a full-grown man. Children are also more likely to be struck or run over by a lawn mower due to a variety of factors, including height, erratic behavior, and lack of safety knowledge.
Image Credit: Fire-n, Shutterstock
13. The most common injuries for children involving lawn mowers are burns.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
The most common injuries presenting in children involving lawn mowers are burns. That is because children will touch a hot lawn mower by mistake after or during use. Kids do not realize that parts of the lawn mower engine get extremely hot during use. Touching the wrong part of the engine can result in a severe burn. You can also be burned by running into or brushing up against a hot engine.
14. The second most common injury for children is being run over or tripping over the mower.
(Official Health Infobase of Canada)
After burns, children are most commonly injured by being run over by a lawn mower or tripping over a stationary lawn mower. For reasons previously discussed, children are at much higher risk for these types of injuries than adults, and the information bears that out. The rates of these types of injuries in children are two to three times higher than in adults.
Just 5.9% of injuries in adults are the result of being struck by a lawn mower. By comparison, 17% of injuries in children are the result of being run over by a lawn mower. The discrepancies are also similar for tripping over and falling off lawn mowers between adults and children.
Frequently Asked Questions About Lawn Mower Accidents
What Is the Most Common Type of Lawn Mower Accident?
The most common type of lawn mower accident is having a hand or foot accidentally get caught in the blades. The lawn mower does not always have to be on to cause these injuries. Feet are most commonly injured when people trip and push the lawn mower over their foot. Hands are most commonly injured by reaching under the lawn mower to service, clean, or dislodge the blades. Both injuries typically result in lacerations, but sometimes amputations can occur.
Image Credit: Sergey and Marina Pyataev, Shutterstock
How Serious Are Lawn Mower Accidents?
Lawn mower accidents are generally minor. Most injuries are treated in the emergency room and require basic care to resolve. Just 15% of injuries in Canada result in hospitalizations that require more in-depth care. Fatalities are extremely rare. According to the data set, there were no fatalities in Canada reported between 2011 and 2018 involving lawn mowers. That is very good news and shows how most injuries, even severe ones, are not lethal to a person’s health.
What Is the Best Way to Avoid a Lawn Mower Accident?
There are a few ways to sharply decrease the rate of injury involving lawn mowers. The first is to wear appropriate clothing. Wearing long sleeves, pants, and gloves will cut down on the number of lacerations. The second way to avoid injury is to never ever disengage the safety switches on a lawn mower. Most mowers have switches that cut the engine when a person lets go or gets off of a lawn mower. Some people disengage this feature which is incredibly dangerous. Never reach under the lawn mower when the mower is running, even if the blades are disengaged. If you must reach under the lawn mower when it is off, wear gloves. Lastly, do not let children around the lawn mower, especially young children under the age of 13. Keeping young children away from the lawn mower will vastly decrease their risk of injury.
These tips will help reduce the overall number of lawn mower accidents in the general population.
Conclusion
The rate of lawn mower accidents in Canada is very low, but there are still dozens of people every year that end up in the hospital. Some injuries are more serious than others, but most are generally very mild. Canada has a very detailed tracking system for hospitalizations and injuries that has provided some very interesting insights. Overall, Canada has much lower rates of minor and serious accidents involving lawn mowers compared to the United States. The best way to avoid lawn mower related accidents is to adhere to common sense safety practices.
Pete has been working in the trades since high school, where he first developed a passion for woodworking. Over the years, he has developed a keen interest in a wide variety of DIY projects around the home. Fascinated by all sort of tools, Pete loves reading and writing about all the latest gadgets and accessories that hit the market. His other interests include astronomy, hiking, and fishing.
As the founder of House Grail, Pete's primary goal is to help consumers make educated decisions about DIY projects at home, in the garage, and in the garden.
