"Mike W." wrote

Thats about where I took it. I heard 'kickback this' and 'safety that'
all the time so I was pretty careful. It only took that one bit of
laziness to show me why its preached so often. I have a basement shop
which is a little chilly so I had a t-shirt and a sweatshirt on which
certainly helped. I remember the instant I heard the launch, it took a
split second to recognize the impact and pain, and before I could get my
hands and eyes to the 'crater' I wondered if I had been impaled. Luckily
all I got was a welt that after about an hour actually let some blood come
to the surface, but I know I got off easy. LESSON LEARNED.

I remember my high school shop teacher telling us to stand in a position
that if you fell, you would not fall on the sawblade. We would have to
demonstrate this. We would fall onto a padded table saw to show that we did
not have any hands, etc, where they should not be.

I continue to follow that advice. What I added this little safety ritual was
making sure I DON'T stand where any potential kickback may occur.