I am finally vindicated.  I have always removed several of the so called "safety features" from each new mower I purchase, for the same reason, usability.  I thought I was the only person in the world who did it, and have always been omewhat nervous about using my mower without the dreaded safety features.  I also have never been injured by a mower.  It has always been my assumption that each of the safety features were created because someone was injured doing something stupid around a mower and then sued the manufacturer.  The manufacturer's lawyers then told the manufacturer to install something to prevent that stupid activity, and thus the new safety feature was installed.  The sad part of it all is that, the price of the mower goes up each time a new safety feature is added. 

I have long said I lived in a nation populated by idiots.  I was wrong.  I was being an optimist.  I now claim thar I live in a world populated by idiots. A few years ago I wanted to buy a new cutting torch for hobby use. The price had skyrocketed in the one year since I last looked at one.  The new torch had warning labels all over it warning of "likely hot" areas. The sales guy then told me that the company had lost a suit over a guy who had burned himself and it was the manufacturers fault because he did not know some parts were hot.  It's a cutting torch!  Its made to cut steel by burning it with oxygen and high heat.  Worse was the judge or jury to awarded damages.  I noticed my wife's hair dryer had a label to not use the dryer in the shower or bathtub.  Huh?  We need to have people like this kill themselves as protecting them causes the gene pool depth to get very shallow indeed!

I own a lawnmower, which is now 25 years old and (with a number of repairs) running fine. About 6 years ago it refused to crank and I couldn't get it going with the usual fixes, spark plug, ignition checked good. I figured the carburetor was clogged. As it was quite old, I boght a new mower. Both mowers were made by the same company, low end, no frills. However the new mower had a few safety upgrades. As on the old one, it had the bail that you have to squeeze to keep it going, but the other features were new. The frame was longer, front and back to keep ones own toes from being chopped, and anyone standing in front with their toes pointed toward the mower. This increased the weight that had to be picked up by depressing the handle when turning. The old motor had the cylinder facing rear whereas the new one was facing front. This gave addional to be lifed when turning. What safety issue this addessed, I do not know. The old mower had a 1" diameter push bar with smoothe chrome plating. The new one was 3/4" with a knobbly baked on finish. The small diameter and roughness took a toll on ones hands. Safety? The old one featured a handle that could be stood vertically so the mower could be parked in its own footprint. The new mower handle would not stand up, which required extra storage space. It did have a folding feature, but it required loosening a couple of convenient wing nuts. Unfortunately, if you forgot to tighten them thoroughly afterwards, you found the the handle came loose after a short usage and a wing nut was lost in the grass. The safety issue apparantly was the possiblity that you could make the handle stand up on tho old mower while using it and create some sort of hazard. After struggling with these "improvements'" for a couple of seasons, I got exasperated. I took both mowers to the fixit shop and told the repairman that if he could fix the old mower, I would give him the new one in trade. He fixed it kept the new mower and the old one is still doing fine at age 25.

I once read a quote that said: “Make something idiot proof and only idiots will use it.”