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Earlier, I posted an entry about the number of table saws in use in the United States. (Click here to read that piece.) In the post, the figure was pushed from 700,000, as represented in The Oregonian, to four million or more. But that number may be a bit short, too.
While reading a copy of the Journal of Trauma, as mentioned here, I discovered that the actual number is between 6 and 10 million saws.
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It’s a toss up to me, which is least reliable? A newspaper reporter or a trial lawyer?
The Saws are what they are, and the wood workers are human beings.
Juries have always been brought down to the very lowest common denominator by our crooked court system. The Reporters & Trial Lawyers are the worst bottom feeders in our society. Thats why Congress is so bad, its full of both types
table saw injuries come in the most part from someone being an idiot while using one, drinking, talking, or not paying attention to the spinning blade that is just a few inches from their fingers.
table saw injuries are the fault of the person operating the saw pretty much every time the saw doesn’t move the blade don’t change position, so anything it cuts has to be placed there by the operator.
when are we Americans going to start accepting responsibility for things that are our own fault?
I suspect the 6-10 million number is far closer to correct.
The one thing that no one seems to have mentioned in this series of posts is the concept of shared liability. Based on the "facts" as I understand them, the peson injured was a "professional woodworker". Even if you believe that Ryobi did indeed make a defective/unsafe product, where is the responsibility of the saws owner/contractor in this case? Did the employee receive proper training and a checkout on the saw and was there a qualification proceedure? Were there written proceedures and instructions for employees operating the saw? Was there adequate supervision? My point is simple, lawyers believe in the deep pocket theory and go after the guy with the bucks (Ryobi) while the small contractor who is probably at least equally responsible will escape with maybe an OSHA violation fine of a few hundred dollars because he isn’t worth sueing. He’d probably just declare bankruptcy. We won’t even get into the environment the saw was operating in, the employee’s responsibility, and personal protective equipment.
Overal my point is that the usefulness and technology of the Sawstop aside, there are many level of responsibilty involved here. The "best available technology" argument can not be viewed as if it is in a vacuum.
Thanks for listening.
Dave
You can’t eliminate stupidity through legislation.
What is the acceptable rate of injury? The PC answer is 0.
In a perfect world my 50 year old table saw would have been trashed and replaced with a safer model. In a perfect world, every user would indeed read, understand and follow all of the safety requirements for every tool. In a perfect world every user would come to use a tool with a focused mind, concerned only with their safety in mind. they would not be thinking about a fight with their spouse, the childrens grades, house payments etc.
They would never have a phone ring during a cut.
Unfortunately we do not work in a perfect world. We are human and we make mistakes. In this case, we call them accidents.
Steve, I’m not trying to justify anything. I am attempting to present an accurate number from which to work and report. If inaccurate numbers are continually repeated, especially with the speed of information travel today, who is to gain.
Glen, it doesn’t matter. Unless you can show that there are a hundred table saws for every man, woman and child in the US, the rate of injuries is still WAY TOO HIGH. There’s no way to justify it.