Should ZTR operators be ticketed if the ROPS bar is removed?

[djdicetn]

Now are you saying that the commercial or professional lawn care maintenance worker should be ticketed if they are not using a rops and wearing a seat belt??? If you are it can't be done without a lot of changes.

Ric,

Well it's obvious that my opinion, regardless of how interpreted, is definitely a minority view(with 10 NO votes and only my 1 YES vote:0)
And as eluded to just previously by user Old Goat, anyone can refuse to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle(but probably would make their child wear one) and even motorcycle riders in TN are "required" to wear a helmet and are fined if they don't. It would be extremely difficult to enforce a private homeowner as Old Goat's scenario discussed, in regard to removing or not using a discharge chute cover, ROPS and/or seat belts. In regards to a dealer selling a ZTR designated as "Commercial", whether to me for personal use or to you for a business, I think they should be required to explain the benefit of using said safety features and therefore satisfying any liabilityon their part or the manufacturer for the user having an accident. But yes, in a nutshell, the recent news story about the "professional lawn maintenance guy" being killed when the JD ZTR turned over compelled me to wonder whether "I would pay someone to mow my lawn on a ZTR that did NOT have/use a ROPS and/or seatbelt". I think that someone doing this for a living should be held accountable at a higher level for any fear of liability on the part of a customer, their dealer and the manufacturer should the deceased worker's spouse decide to sue ony of those entities over the lack of safety adherence. Is that really(9 to 1 against) such a way out in left field perspective???

 

[Ric]

Now are you saying that the commercial or professional lawn care maintenance worker should be ticketed if they are not using a rops and wearing a seat belt??? If you are it can't be done without a lot of changes.

Ric,

Well it's obvious that my opinion, regardless of how interpreted, is definitely a minority view(with 10 NO votes and only my 1 YES vote:0)
And as eluded to just previously by user Old Goat, anyone can refuse to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle(but probably would make their child wear one) and even motorcycle riders in TN are "required" to wear a helmet and are fined if they don't. It would be extremely difficult to enforce a private homeowner as Old Goat's scenario discussed, in regard to removing or not using a discharge chute cover, ROPS and/or seat belts. In regards to a dealer selling a ZTR designated as "Commercial", whether to me for personal use or to you for a business, I think they should be required to explain the benefit of using said safety features and therefore satisfying any liabilityon their part or the manufacturer for the user having an accident. But yes, in a nutshell, the recent news story about the "professional lawn maintenance guy" being killed when the JD ZTR turned over compelled me to wonder whether "I would pay someone to mow my lawn on a ZTR that did NOT have/use a ROPS and/or seatbelt". I think that someone doing this for a living should be held accountable at a higher level for any fear of liability on the part of a customer, their dealer and the manufacturer should the deceased worker's spouse decide to sue ony of those entities over the lack of safety adherence. Is that really(9 to 1 against) such a way out in left field perspective???

My point was that were talking about the Commercial or professional lawn care maintenance worker and we shouldn't be, We should be talking about the equipment. The problem with ticketing the LCO is that there are a lot of smaller LCO's use residential equipment (ZTR) especially when starting out which doesn't come with seat belts and a Rops so as I see it you have to limit the laws to those who use Commercial equipment but if you do that you could only fine those who are using the ZTR because most everything else is doesn't come with seat belts and a Rops. What would we do about the Standers which for all intents and purposes are a ZTR mower or the Wright Sentar or Sport ZTR mowers that has a seat but is used as a stander.

 

[Old Goat]

in a nutshell, the recent news story about the "professional lawn maintenance guy" being killed when the JD ZTR turned over compelled me to wonder whether "I would pay someone to mow my lawn on a ZTR that did NOT have/use a ROPS and/or seatbelt". I think that someone doing this for a living should be held accountable at a higher level for any fear of liability on the part of a customer, their dealer and the manufacturer should the deceased worker's spouse decide to sue ony of those entities over the lack of safety adherence. Is that really(9 to 1 against) such a way out in left field perspective???

In this perpective, I would not even think about hiring someone to cut my property with a ZTR and no ROP's bar. I would not even want to start having conversations with insurance agents and lawyers in that scenario!

 

[A_tank96]

My John Deere 425 has the discharge chute removed. Had it removed for 12 years now, never had anyone get hurt. The safety seat is also disengaged because I mowed when I was little and my grandpa took it off so I could mow. If I'm mowing on a hill I want a ROPS Anything else and I'll use my own common sense.

 

[scott47429]

i voted no but i think if your cutting where there is a danger of over turning you should use it but its alot like seat belts in a car i dont think the law should be able to tell you to wear them if you want to kill yourself then so be it whos it hurting other then you i mean you have to wear a seat belt in a car but you dont have to wear a helmet on a motorcycle

 

[djdicetn]

Saw a thread that is FULL of nasty rage. I don't have much of an opinion because I do not own a ZTR.

Do you think that ZTR owners should be ticketed if the ROPS bar is missing?

X-Man,

I sure wish you had clarified "Commercial ZTR operators" in this poll(my whole point in that "nasty rage' thread was about a recent lawn maintenance professional who was killed on a ZTR without a ROPS). A homeowner being restricted is a completely different matter and maybe I wouldn't be outnumbered in votes 13 to 1 if we weren't getting the "homeowner perspective". My question for all readers of this thread is would you or I pay someone to mow our yard without a ROPS and seat belt, then have their widowed spouse sue us and our homeowners insurance company because of our ditch that killed their husband???? It's gonna happen it's just a matter of time.

 

[djdicetn]

My John Deere 425 has the discharge chute removed. Had it removed for 12 years now, never had anyone get hurt. The safety seat is also disengaged because I mowed when I was little and my grandpa took it off so I could mow. If I'm mowing on a hill I want a ROPS Anything else and I'll use my own common sense.

A_tank96,
So what would you do if your mower threw a rock through the windshield of your customer's Mecedes Benz. That would hurt your profit that summer and/or insurance coverage premium.

 

[djdicetn]

i voted no but i think if your cutting where there is a danger of over turning you should use it but its alot like seat belts in a car i dont think the law should be able to tell you to wear them if you want to kill yourself then so be it whos it hurting other then you i mean you have to wear a seat belt in a car but you dont have to wear a helmet on a motorcycle

scott47429,
You don't want to ride your motorcycle in Tennessee then(if you don't want a ticket). It's a law here. If you kill yourself mowing a yard for hire because of a ditch in the paying customer's yard, what's to prevent your widow from filing a lawsuit????

 

[Ric]

X-Man,

I sure wish you had clarified "Commercial ZTR operators" in this poll(my whole point in that "nasty rage' thread was about a recent lawn maintenance professional who was killed on a ZTR without a ROPS). A homeowner being restricted is a completely different matter and maybe I wouldn't be outnumbered in votes 13 to 1 if we weren't getting the "homeowner perspective". My question for all readers of this thread is would you or I pay someone to mow our yard without a ROPS and seat belt, then have their widowed spouse sue us and our homeowners insurance company because of our ditch that killed their husband???? It's gonna happen it's just a matter of time.

If you are asking would I pay someone to mow our yard without a ROPS and seat belt, my answer would be yes and I think most people would also. I was out mowing this morning and saw three other businesses out mowing, one with a 60 with Dixie Chopper another with a 60" Exmark and one with a Toro but I couldn't tell what size and none had a Rops on there mower. The thing is that most people or costumers unless they are familiar with mowers don't even know what it is. My guess is if you started looking for company's that use the Commercial ZTR you would fined that the greatest percentage of company's are without or don't use a Rops.

 

[djdicetn]

If you are asking would I pay someone to mow our yard without a ROPS and seat belt, my answer would be yes and I think most people would also. I was out mowing this morning and saw three other businesses out mowing, one with a 60 with Dixie Chopper another with a 60" Exmark and one with a Toro but I couldn't tell what size and none had a Rops on there mower. The thing is that most people or costumers unless they are familiar with mowers don't even know what it is. My guess is if you started looking for company's that use the Commercial ZTR you would fined that the greatest percentage of company's are without or don't use a Rops.

Ric,
Well maybe I need to Google "fatalities on Zero Turn Mowers" to get a perspective, as mentioned in one of these threads, about just what the statisics say about that. I'm just about to the point where if I could "change my vote" it would be 0 Yes votes and 15 No votes(or somebody is going to have to vote yes just so I don't feel so bad & lonely:0)