philroe

I'm a bit saddened to see how how this debate has polarised between the libertarians and the regulators.
I feel some sympathy for both positions myself. But like it or not, regulation is coming, and some dialog
is needed if it is to be reasonable. I'd like to offer a tentative suggestion of what might be acceptable.

After a certain date in the future, it would be illegal to sell a new TS without OSHA approved safety
features. The nature of these features would have been determined by representatives of OSHA, the
tool manufacturers, the insurers, the construction industry, and the woodworking community. After
that same date, or a later one, it would also be illegal to allow anyone under your supervision to operate a TS
without the safety equipment in place, and without proper instruction.

I would very much like to see constructive criticism of this, because I am sure it can be improved, but note a
few things. If the date is far enough ahead, it gives the TS manufacturers and other inventors time to produce
safety devices that really work, that can be competitively priced, and that few people will be tempted to
remove. I'm quite sure that these are being worked on already. The proposal allows that if, in the privacy
of your own shop, you want to remove them anyway, then you can. But if you remove a couple of digits, you can
expect a protracted conversation with your insurers. The proposal would have put blame for the
incident that started all this squarely where it belonged, on a callous employer who knowingly
put at hazard some poor mutt who desperately needed the job.

A really bad outcome to all of this would be if the sawstop technology were enforced, and that as a result people started to think that tablesaws were safe. Safety engineering is as much about psychology as anything else. If you straighten out the road at an accident "black spot" people just drive faster. You do reduce accidents, but not by as much as you expected.

I see that the ambulance chasers have started with this thing. Check the website of Kelley Uustal.