# 1.5 million dollars award in table saw injury



## woodman71 (Apr 19, 2009)

Hello everyone I was reading my new wood magazine I get in the mail. One of the story was of a man that was award 1.5 million for cutting three fingers . It almost amputated one finger seriously injuring two other. He worked for a flooring company what was he doing free hand cutting on a table saw no guards . The table saw he was using was a Ryobi BTS15 bench top model . I have to say this is BS I don't care how many years you been doing this you don't cut free hand on a table saw ever period . That is what a band saw is for or a jig saw it didn't say if his employer and to pay any thing the lost suit was against Ryobi or one world technologies . I guess that workman comp payed for this at least i hope it did also said his medical expenses were 384,000 when wood wrote the story . I'm sorry but if I was on this jury I would have not award any money to this guy . If your working in any trade you got to have common sense and the mind set to know better this guy didn't does that mean I don't feel sorry for this guy of course not but were do you draw the line. How come in the story it was never brought up if the employer trained his employees to use the tools the right way and if he knew what he was doing was the correct way to use the saw. Every time some one get injured you cant sue the tool company Im sorry I don't see it that way it went on to say that the jury found this guy at 35 percent at fault and Ryobi 65 percent at fault I don't see it that way either I see it as he is 100 percent at fault. Why do I say that because it YOUR responsible to Know if it safe or not and to watch out for your own safety. I don't think I'm being to hard at all and just thought I post this to see what the rest of you have to say. one more thing accidents happened but most of the time they happened because we know better but do it any way or because were in a rush to do it .


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## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

This has made the rounds here, and the consensus was…divided. I personally think if you take the guards off, it's on your head (or fingers). Even with guards, the table saw is a dangerous beast, along with every other power tool. Ya gotta treat 'em with respect.


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

You can't unstupid anything!


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## Magnum (Feb 5, 2010)

Both you guys are right! Only One Solution!



These are the same kind of people that Read Signs and then go ahead and do exactly what the Sign says NOT to do.


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## Gregn (Mar 26, 2010)

Woodman, From what I have read this guy took all the guards and fence off of the saw. Personally I think the jury was deaf when that part was mentioned and they showed they had less common sense than this guy had. 
As Ron White says *YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!*


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## CryptKeeper (Apr 28, 2010)

Hey, they could have given him more. Years ago I worked as a meat cutter and a co-worker of mine won $26 million from Hobart for cutting his forearm on one of their slant saws. The blade tilts at about ~15 - 20 degrees and pulls the meat down and into the blade.

They argued that it was design flaw of the saw that pulled his arm into the blade (forget that he was 3 sheets in the wind and cutting a frozen leg of lamb, reaching across the blade without any guards). Basically, the blade hit the frozen bone and rolled counter-clockwise taking his arm with into blade. He didn't lose his arm but it cut him to the bone through all of the muscles on top of the forearm. After he won the settlement Hobart agreed not to appeal if he would take $12 million - he took the deal.

I don't know all the details on this one but I think their argument was the saw should have had the SawStop technology regardless to the fact the saw he was using cost ~$75.


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