Lawnmower Explosion

On Friday June 8th 2007 at about 11 AM (the first day of summer) I was cutting my grass when my lawn mower engine exploded. Let me start off by saying I did not explode it on purpose.

It was the first time I used the mower this year and we just got it back from being serviced a few weeks earlier. I was cutting the grass for about 20 minuets before the accident happened.

As I was cutting across the yard I herd two knocks in the engine and then it exploded. This all happened within about 2 seconds, leaving me with little time to react. The explosion was in the engine and I’m not exactly sure what happened to make it explode.

That is still being looked into. At the time, parts were shooting out of the engine at me.

I got hit in the leg by one of the pieces (not sure which) as I was turning to run. Again, this all happened within a few seconds. I’m extremely lucky that all that happened was a cut up leg. The cut was oozing blood as I was running as far from the mower as I could. The entire area was covered in a cloud of smoke coming out of the motor. I thought the mower was on fire and that it was going to explode. Luckily it was just smoke and the motor soon died out.  

The cut in my leg is about 2 inches below my knee and about 3/4-1 Inch long, quarter inch wide and about 1/8 inch deep. I should have gone to get stitches but I just used butterfly bandages to keep the skin together. Every time I stood up the pool of blood in my leg would drip out everywhere.

The cut was open for about 24 hours before it made a scab. The scab ripped a few times because if I bend my knee, the skin stretches and the scab is stretched. I had to keep my knee locked for 3 days until the scab hardened. When I finally bent my knee for the first time in 3 days, it felt so good I can not describe it with words.