If you’re thinking about getting a drone for one of your kids you might be worried if a drone will be able to hurt them. I know I was. So I did some research and here’s what I discovered.
So can drones hurt you, or are they safe? The short answer is drones aren’t safe at all. While smaller drone blades might not be able to cut into your skin, they can get enough speed to fly into your face and take out an eye. However, larger drones could do even more damage. Their blades are strong enough to cut through the skin and cause severe bleeding.
Obviously how safe drones are, depends on the size of the drone. Smaller drones might not be able to do any damage at all. While bigger drones could take off a finger or even bust out an eye.
So if you’re thinking of getting a drone for a child, make sure you consider the size of a drone first.
I’m not going to give you the boring answer of “well it depends.” Instead, I’ll give you an example of what happens when you stick a carrot into a DJI spark drone. Enjoy the video!
Now I’m not sure if the result will be similar on a finger, however, my gut tells me that it won’t be pretty.
Want to hear some real-life stories of people who hurt themselves with their drones? I looked online in some popular drone forums and I found these stories. View the thread here if you want to check out the long thread on mavicpilots.com.
Here’s a summary of the conversation:
Even celebrities have fallen victim to drones. Here’s a video of Enrique Iglesias hand getting cut open by a drone during a concert. He still carried on with the concert, however, it looked pretty PAINFUL!
As you can see some drone accidents are minor, however, others can be extremely severe. Another point to note is most of the drone accidents that happened above happened to adults. So when it comes to children you need to try and be even more careful.
While most drone accidents can be avoided, they are definitely not toys for kids. Especially the larger ones. So be careful when choosing a drone.
Since large drones like the Mavic Pro’s or Phantoms aren’t suitable for children, you’re probably wondering which drones are.
So I went out on the hunt to try and find drones that are safe enough for kids to use. Here are the biggest “safety factors” I looked out for:
Here are my top drones that are suitable for kids:
DRONE TYPE: | PRICE: |
JJRC H36 Mini Drone | $26.99 |
UFO 3000 LED Drone | $34.99 |
Syma X5SW | $39.99 |
DROCON Ninja Drone | $59.99 |
UDI U818A Drone with HD Camera | $64.50 |
Holy Stone F181W Wifi FPV Drone | $69.99 |
Air Hogs Star Wars Millennium Falcon | $165.30 |
You’ll be able to find all those drones on Amazon.com. However, if you can’t be bothered to search them all out simply click on the name of the drones on the table.
What about for us adults? Or maybe you have a well-trained kid and you want to get him a big-boy drone. How can you avoid getting a drone-related injury? Well, it’s simple. Let’s try and learn from others before we make their same mistakes.
Here’s a list of what I’ve learned from others while doing research for this article:
Now that we know how to stay safe, there might be some of you wondering if a drone can actually kill you. Well before I scare you, I want to show you this video I found on YouTube on the popular T.V show Mythbusters.
Before I spoil what happens, watch the video first.
Points to note:
In the video, the propeller did actually cause a pretty significant “wound.” A wound that would probably have caused a fatal injury if it happened on your neck and cut open the jugular.
However, we need to keep in mind that the scenario wasn’t realistic. The Mythbusters team held the chicken stationary, and then they slowly moved the spinning blade towards the chicken, and once it started cutting, they held it in place for a few seconds.
In a real-world scenario, the drone would have just smashed against your neck and probably would have bounced off without having time to cut deep. So the “fatal injury” scenario, although being technically possible, is also highly unlikely.
That being said, while I personally don’t think a normal everyday drone such as the DJI or Phantom can kill you, it’s always good to take precautions. I would be more worried about taking out an eye. So make sure you stay safe!
UPDATE: I came across this video on YouTube that shows some NASTY drone accidents which has changed my perspective slightly. Only watch it if you have a strong stomach! You have been warned.
Where can you get propeller guards?
There are a lot of places you can get them online. For example amazon.com. You could also look at the online store that you bought your drone from. They might have propeller guards specifically for your drone type.
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