Table saws are incredibly dangerous machines capable of causing serious injuries in an instant as the result of even the slightest misstep by the operator.
- What Is SawStop on Table Saws?
- How Does a Blade Guard or Blade Guards Protect You When You Are Using Table Saws?
- How Do Most Accidents Happen With Table Saws?
- Common Injuries With Blade Tools Like Table Saws
- Table Saw Injury Law FAQs
- How Saw Stop Technology Impacts an Injury Lawsuit Involving Table Saws?
- Sample Settlements & Verdicts Involving Table Saw Injuries
- You May be Entitled to Compensation for Injuries From the Manufacturer, Your Employer– Or Both!
- Contact Experienced Chicago Table Saw Injury Lawyer
- Common Table Saw Safety
Thousands of people suffer from devastating injuries every year after losing fingers or hands while using a power saw. Many of these workplace incidents and harms are due to design flaws and could be prevented entirely with the implementation of saw-stop technology.
Many table saw manufacturers have refused to implement this safety feature technology in their products, and this decision may make them liable for any injuries caused since the existence of SawStop technology.
The construction accident attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC, help people who have suffered serious injuries with table saws due to a design flaw.
Our Chicago table saw injury lawyer is experienced in the field of product liability law and is committed to holding manufacturers accountable when their machines cause an injury.
Call our product liability law firm for a free consultation.
What Is SawStop on Table Saws?
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, available safety technology (SawStop) could revolutionize the power tool industry for more than a decade tool manufacturers would use the flesh-sensing technology in their designs on table saws sold worldwide. Instead, not all table saws show certain safety features to ensure consumer safety.
This flesh-sensing safety technology uses sensors in the blade mechanism that senses electrical signal conductivity.
The Consumer Products Safety Commission states that SawStop and other flesh-sensing technology will completely stop the movement of a saw blade within 1/200th of a second of being triggered.
The safety device works because the human body is much friendlier to electrical currents than the materials that power saws and table saws cut— primarily wood.
Wood is an extremely poor conductor of electrical current. However, humans are capable of having currents passed through bone, muscle, and tissue. When SawStop senses that human flesh has made contact with the blade, it shuts the device off.
How Does a Blade Guard or Blade Guards Protect You When You Are Using Table Saws?
A saw blade guard, or riving knife, is put on a table saw to cover the blade as you cut the material. The rapidly spinning blade guard is put on most table saws per safety standards. Some table saw injuries sustained result from the blade guard or blade guards and are classified as blade guard injuries.
Yet, the most common injury with many tasks involving a rotating blade, riveting knife, or other saws at high speed, involves a lack of a blade guard or blade guards. Blade contact or riving knife accidents can also happen due to a lack of eye protection, anti-kickback pawls, or hearing protection, among other things
Blade contact injuries are rare. If you have blade contact injuries, consider how the blade was assembled.
Contact us if you have been harmed in an accident with a saw that did not have a table saw blade guard or another blade guard. If you sustained serious injuries, you could recover.
Consumer Product Safety Commission has guides on blade guards as well as saw blades, push sticks, riving knives, rotating blades, and table saw accidents generally. Without a safety mechanism, injuries occur causing emergency room visits and medical costs.
In fact, a common injury is finger amputations, especially with young people in shop class at school with fine woodworking tools, a rotation blade, and riving knives. Table saw accidents happen here a lot and injuries result as well as medical costs. Contact us to learn more about blade safety
How Do Most Accidents Happen With Table Saws?
Most incidents with blade tools occur due to a lack of education, insufficient protection (like anti-kickback pawls), defective material, or faulty blade tools. Of course, it can be a combination of these things.
Yet, we find that accidents can come forward from one side or the other due to just one of these issues. This is why you should check all materials, tools, and guards before sawing no matter the cost or extra time. Replacing old guards and running checks on the blade or tools will be worth it in the long run.
Common Injuries With Blade Tools Like Table Saws
The list of possible injuries sustained with table saws, a similar blade, a riving knife, or other blade tools is endless. Amputations are not impossible including amputations to the left hand or right hand. The blade can harm you in so many different ways and circumstances so you need to be careful.
Here are some of the most common injuries associated with a blade like this if an incident does occur:
- Amputations
- Lacerations
- Infection
- Muscle tears
- broken bones
- Eye or ear damage
This list is not exhaustive and it’s not hyperbolic to say that amputations would not be a shock to receive or the rest of the injuries listed above.
Protect yourself so these don’t get occur and you don’t get hurt or put in the wrong situation. It can cost you a lot of time, energy, and money per all of the safety data.
Table Saw Injury Law FAQs
Here, we provide answers to frequently asked questions from construction workers and other people who were injured (who had loved ones injured) by a table saw. If you have additional questions, we encourage you to contact our table saw injury lawyer for further consultation.
How Saw Stop Technology Impacts an Injury Lawsuit Involving Table Saws?
Negligence is defined as any action or inaction that causes damage to another person or entity, regardless of intent. Willful negligence is generally considered to be worthy of much more severe punishment than negligence that occurs due to human error or poor judgment.
How this relates to table saw injuries in the past ten years is that the refusal of the major table saw manufacturers to install a device that they are fully aware will improve its safety is a willful refusal to address a major safety concern.
Since the technology exists to save countless limbs and lives, power saw companies must be held accountable for their refusal to incorporate its use.
Personal injury attorneys can file an injury lawsuit for injured victims and their loved ones (wrongful death lawsuit) for their harms (lacerations, medical expenses, etc.) and other damages.
Sample Settlements & Verdicts Involving Table Saw Injuries
$445,000 Settlement:
Here, a carpenter in his late thirties sued a couple of equipment manufacturers, Delta and Marathon, as well as some other companies after he had an accident with his table saw. The tool cut into his thumb and three fingers, causing severe lacerations, nerve damage, and permanent injury.
He needed the former amputated and racked up over $20,000 in medical bills. He also lost almost $100,000 in lost wages due to missed work because of the accident, resulting in a settlement of $445,000 for his injuries.
$638,593 Verdict:
The 40-year-old plaintiff in this personal injury cause of action was a construction worker operating a new Makita table power saw when the material kicked back, injuring several of his fingers. His injuries required multiple surgeries and rehab costing almost $60,000.
Unlike many tables that saw injury lawsuits, the company did not attest to any of these allegations of a defective product. However, the jury awarded the man nearly $700,000 for his damages.
$68,278 Verdict:
The victim in this Ryobi table saw the accident was just thirty at the time of the events. He worked as a cop but was using his saw on a day off.
As he tried to pivot and dado, the wood moved, and the saw’s spinning blade went into his left hand, breaking his index finger and ring finger. He needed extensive medical work (almost $10,000 worth) and missed substantial time from work over three months.
He sued the saw manufacturer and claimed it was unsafe and defective. Like many injury cases, the jury found the plaintiff, awarding him $68,278 in financial compensation.
You May be Entitled to Compensation for Injuries From the Manufacturer, Your Employer– Or Both!
Losing a limb can easily mark the end of a career and the ability of a person to support him or herself. Victims of the table-saw accidents are entitled to the cost of medical bills and therapy.
They are also within their rights to demand compensation in the form of lost wages— both current and future— due to their inability to work. In some situations, the injured person may be entitled to recover compensation for punitive damages when extreme recklessness can be demonstrated.
The loss of a limb is also extremely painful and difficult to cope with. Pain and suffering can be considered as the actual pain endured during recovery as well as the mental anguish suffered by needing to adjust to a lowered quality of life.
The amount of pain and suffering a victim has endured may increase the amount of compensation he or she may be awarded in a lawsuit. This is especially the case if the person works with an experienced construction accident attorney. Your attorney can best relay what relief is possible for incidents involving blade tools, faulty guards,s or guards as well as the cost of litigation.
Contact Experienced Chicago Table Saw Injury Lawyer
The table saw injury team at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC is ready and able to provide any assistance that you need if you have been the victim of a table saw accident.
Give our personal injury lawyers a phone call today, or use our contact form to discuss your rights as a consumer and an employee— if the accident occurred while on the job.
We will investigate the details of your table saw injury case and perform a thorough investigation before letting you know exactly how we would proceed with the matter and what first steps you should take going forward.
Our table saw injury lawyers provide free claim evaluations. We accept all product liability lawsuits on a contingency fee basis, meaning our services are free if our personal injury law firm cannot help you receive the financial compensation that you are entitled to by law.
All confidential information you share with our law firm remains confidential through an attorney-client relationship.
We also handle other personal injury lawsuits in other practice areas, including medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, car accidents, and premises liability.
