Tablesaw injury and a jury of (obviously) non-woodworkers

There is an extremely disturbing article in Woodshop News that I've been thinking about for the last couple of hours. You can read about it here.

As someone who runs a woodworking school and routinely teaches people how to use a tablesaw, I get chills from this story. It also makes me think of personal responsibility and people who refuse to take it.

This judgement is wrong on so many levels, it's frightening. I agree with every point that the author makes, but my bigger issue is that the employer wasn't found to be at fault. Who removed the guard? Who showed the worker how to turn the saw on? You can bet that everyone that cuts a board in my shop has far better training than this worker; it's my responsibility to provide that training. And the buck doesn't stop there. Everyone who approaches the saw must have their ducks in a row - safety glasses? Check! Push stick? Check!

So I'm sitting here at my desk, trying to organize my thoughts about this. My two "children" (OK, schnauzers) are at my feet, trying to get me to play with them. Yesterday, while at the store, I picked up a couple of new doggie toys, and damn! How do they know I have two new toys sitting on my desk? As I was cutting off the tags from the toys, I glanced at the label on them.


Looks like a pretty fun toy, right? Well, check out the back of the label.


Now don't you think if they show a dog chewing the toy on the front of the label, you should be able to correctly assume that it's a chew toy? Did you read that second line - "not intended as a chew toy?"

WTF?

I better close this for now, as one of my dogs just chewed off a small chunk of the toy, and is trying to swallow it. I'm calling my lawyer!