trinity_too

I presume we all agree that this is a horrible, unfortunate accident that might have been prevented - with training, proper working conditions, proper equipment. What is unfortunate is that the man had to pay for the treatment and presumably could not afford medical insurance. My problem is who has to pay for this treatment and the resulting assigning blame, and the impact on his working career. Certainly Workman's Compensation chould treat workers better. More importantly, there should be a universal health care system. I'm Canadian - up here his medical treatment would have been covered (slow, but there); I don't know about WC. Perhaps this case should be a push for more support for Obama and his medical care start in the US.

The only way to make a table saw totally safe for anyone to use is to not allow anyone to use a table saw.

To BayRE4U: A rebuttal on some of your points.
1.You are hurt badly on the job using a Ryobi table saw.
If a boss asks you to do something that you feel is unsafe, you don't have to do it. By law. You can refuse, or get training, or read up on your own time.

3.The state pays and investigates the saw manufacturer where they find fraud and safety abuses.
There weren't any abuses. Ryobi sold a table saw similar to 99% of table saws - none of which has the special flesh detection and quick stop mechanism of the one table saw that does. It is not up to the manufacturers to provide this not-free feature; it is up to the buyer to make sure what he is buying is what he needs. It is up to the buyer to read the safety manual. It is up to the buyer to learn how to use the product, which might include books, videos, classes, asking experts. It is not the buyer's right to start using the machine with no training or research and expect the machine to be completely safe, no matter what he does. Any machine.

5. 4 years go by with the manufacturer filing motion after motion until finally the insurance company gets its day in court.
Of course they tried to head off a court case. It's not their saw that's the problem, otherwise anyone who used either their saw or any table saw would be cutting off fingers. Those that have injuries are usually sensible enough to understand the why, usually too tired, or too hurried. And why settle out of court if it isn't their fault? That's called a nuisance suit. Who do you think pays for this settlement? Power machine buyers.

9. You finally have rest and can focus on the future with a hundred thousand in the bank enough to last you two to three years.
Boy, I wish I had that money - it sure would last me more than 2-3 years.

Now if he had sued the boss or the company for not offering training (if he had asked for it, of course) - that makes slightly more sense. However, they probably wouldn't have had the perceived pots of money that Ryobi has...
And it sounds like although his hand is injured (and we really do commiserate with this), he hasn't lost the use of it - it wasn't cut off. Servicemen come home with horrific injuries, and they aren't handed huge amounts of money. Now that's much worse.
This case will set a precedent for an avalanche of cases, which is the real problem. Prices for anything manufactured will skyrocket because companies will be paying huge amounts to insurance companies, printing huge manuals with every safety caution known to man, asking for proof of competence before selling to anyone. We'll have to start using table saws with helmets, steel-capped boots, kevlar-lined gloves, full respirator suits (sawdust), lexan faceshields (splinters), battle armour (kickback), monitoring cameras... and that's if we can afford to buy the thing in the first place (plus all the training too).
Of course we don't know the full story, but then neither do you. So we are all making judgements without knowing all the facts.

American justice system is insane.
I think this case points out (yet again) how smart lawyers can pull the wool over judges' eyes, and the 'winner' of the case (really the lawyers) is the wrong party. Somehow the silent majority who believe that people are responsible for their own actions have to get this imperative rule of life across to the justice system before it's too late. The cost of living is just going to increase exponentially as manufacturers pass on the cost of both making things idiot-proof (impossible) and insurance costs to consumers.
Perhaps it's time for an online petition for folks to sign - it would make the Guiness Book of Records - and (optimistically) might make a difference. Trinity.