"RicodJour" wrote in message
...
On Aug 11, 12:55 pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Aug 11, 12:28 pm, RicodJour wrote:
Trot on over to rec.woodworking and ask how many people over there
have been bitten by a saw.
Then ask them if they have replaced the saw that bit them with a SawStop.
You're missing my point, DD. The price premium is high - now. It'll
come down. The price is immaterial to the fact that it is a user-
selectable safety system that actually works, doesn't get in the way
of cuts, and is invisible in use. It's better technology.
A better question to ask over at the wreck would be, if you had a
choice of paying $2000 now and getting the tip of your finger back,
would you?
Tip of your finger if you're incredibly lucky! Anyone unlucky enough to see
how fast a radial arm saw can "walk" across a piece of lumber (usually from
starting the motor with the blade already jammed against the stock) knows
how fast it could drag your whole arm into the blade with devastating
results. A modern power saw cuts human flesh and bone like butter since
it's designed to tear through tough oak.
I often wonder why people have such a "stuck in the craw" attitude about
improvements in safety engineering? You see it all the time here. Is it a
macho thing? Is it oldsters railing at the changes in the modern world that
they feel they have no control over? Is it the massive ego of believing
they are so smart and so lucky that they are immune from accidents? Well,
no one is immune. You can only hope to reduce accidents but you can't
control when you have a stroke or a heart attack and when that safety
interlock is the only thing standing between a bad event and probably a
lethal one.
Anyone who thinks it can't happen to them should read:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/21/mos...ols_slide.html
Safety engineers have saved the lives and limbs of countless people. It
wasn't too long ago that a poor little girl name Peggy Swan two
neighborhoods over from me gored herself to death riding her bicycle into
the back of a 60's era Cadillac with huge (senseless, decorative only) tail
fins that got the whole ball rolling on modern safety issues. There are
stupid people and there are stupid designers. Both need education.
This is a no-brainer like consumer protection on predatory lending. Yes,
Angelo Mozillo and all the other mortgageers only ripped off the dumb
people, but tell me - are only the dumb people suffering? No, we all are.
It turned out that consumer protection equals protection of the entire
economy. Same for the guy who saws off his hand. We all pay for that.
Higher insurance rates, taxes for disability payments, workmen's comp, etc.
It seems like common sense to lower expenses, especially needless ones.
Deadman switches don't appear because one man died or almost did. It's
because decision makers have seen dozens of deaths and maimings, year after
year and feel compelled to limit those occurrences. That's why so many
Federal safety agencies are called "tombstone agencies" because they only
get into the game when the death rate from something climbs past the
ignorable point.
"In the United States, approximately 9400 children younger than 18 years
receive emergency treatment annually for lawn mower-related injuries. More
than 7% of these children require hospitalization, and power mowers cause a
large proportion of the amputations during childhood. Prevention of lawn
mower-related injuries can be achieved by design changes of lawn mowers,
guidelines for mower operation, and education of parents, child caregivers,
and children. . . . Power lawn mowers caused 22% of the amputation injuries
among children admitted to one regional level 1 trauma center"
source:
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org...ics;107/6/e106
All I can say is that if parents don't properly train their kids to operate
powertools (and it's clear they don't - I learned OTJ, like most of you!),
then someone has to step in, in loco parentis, to compensate. Often, that's
the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I'm a cheap SOB but I am not enough
of a skinflint that I'd wish a kid, especially doing chores or trying to
start a backyard business, the loss of their fingers or their toes, to save
$5 or $10 off a lawnmower.
--
Bobby G.