In article , dpb wrote:

SNIP



As another sidebar of this thread has discussed,
some of us here have served on safety review committees doing accident
analyses and root-cause evaluations. It is truly to be amazed by at how
many of these have as at least one cause either willful disregard for
accepted procedure(s) or actual disabling of one or more safety devices
thus allowing or precipitating the injury.

--

Oh man, did that make my hair stand on end - again. Haven't thought
about it for a long time, but all of a sudden I was back in 1964 sitting
down at a punch press for day after day of punching out zillions of 2
inch parts. Even though the press was old, it was fitted to prevent
getting fingers in the dies. Except that some genius must have thought
that using both hands to lower the press slowed them down too much,
because this one was modified. The left-hand handle was wired down and
the right-handle was wired to a home-brew foot pedal, so that you could
feed with the left hand, retrieve parts with the right hand and operate
the press with ONE FOOT. Even though it scared the **** out of me, I
knew I had to keep my mouth shut and just watch out for myself, or quit
the best paying summer job I could find. I was able to maintain
concentration for a couple of days, but eventually the mind-numbing
repetition took its toll and a couple of times I caught myself getting
out of sequence and reaching to retrieve the part while my foot was
starting to come down to lower the press. Never got hurt, and didn't
hear about anyone else getting hurt, but the experience obviously made
an impression.

And back on topic, if I replace my Jet contractor saw, the Saw Stop will
be high on my list of possibles. Even though I know I am able to prevent
most accidents, some day something may distract me at the wrong moment.

Regards,
PDX David