SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20211104-0E0CB-2147358949. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: RYOBI ELECTRIC RIDER 38" 48V NOTED ABOVE (Electric Rider mower Ryobi brand purchase from Home Depot here in Squim. #'s noted from under the seat are: RM480E, RY48110, 099749009, AND JY18466D010098). Incident: I own a Ryobi Electric Rider mower; an RM480E. There are 3 sets of #'s noted where a serial # would appear and they are RY48110, 099749009, and JY18466D010098. at the rear and lowest section of the main frame there is a hole that would typically be found on any rider type of lawn mower- for pulling/towing something such as hooking up a trailer or possibly a grass/leaf catcher. As I've done many times with gas powered mowers I hooked up a chain via this hole and hooked up the other end of chain to pull out some blackberry bush plants. Because of the design there really is no real slow speed and it sort of jumps into an accelerated forward or reverse speed and I suspect that because the machine is not weighted by much in the front end it allowed for my 'accident' to happen. So as I started forward and there was increasing tension on the chain- in a split second the machine's front end flipped upwards in a 90 degree rotation which left the machine rocking on its rear end- the front of the machine now pointing up at the sky- me in shock wondering if I was still ok as I was also now looking up at the sky; a bit more acceleration and the machine would have been on top of me resulting in major injuries if not something worse. Could have easily done harm to a young teen or someone more elderly than myself. Its about the closest I've ever come to being killed or having some major bodily harm from what you'd think was a somewhat harmless machine operation. There are no warning decals stating the said area of the machine should never be used for such occasions.