Every year, thousands of people are severely injured after using table saws. For more than a decade, flesh-sensing safety technology has been available that could prevent almost all table saw injuries. Unfortunately, the manufacturers have refused to adopt it. Now, many people who have been injured are bringing Table Saw Injury Lawsuits against table saw manufacturers for failing to include the safety devices that would protect their customers from losing fingers, hands, arms, and suffering unfathomable pain.

 

What You Can Do & How a Table Saw Injury Lawsuit Can Help

The Schmidt Firm, LLP is currently accepting Table Saw Injury cases in all 50 states. If you or somebody you know has been injured after using a table saw, you should contact our lawyers immediately for a free Table Saw lawsuit consultation. Please use the form below to contact our Table Saw Litigation Group or call us toll-free 24 hours a day at (866) 920-0753.

UPDATE

May 29, 2012 – California legislators are trying to pass a law that would require all table saws sold after January 1, 2015 to have flesh-sensing safety technology. Proponents say the law would prevent thousands of injuries and billions in costs to society. The matter has passed in the state assembly 52-2, and is now awaiting a decision in the Senate.

Table Saws Injury Overview

Every year, there are over 40,000 table saw injuries, resulting in more than 4,000 amputations. Table saws cause more injuries than any other woodworking tool. Although SawStop safety technology has been around for more than ten years, not all table saw manufacturers have adopted it. In fact, the world’s largest tool manufacturers rejected it.

Now these manufacturers are facing dozens of lawsuits brought forth by people whose injuries could have been prevented had SawStop or similar safety mechanisms been in place.

Consumer advocates are asking the Consumer Products Safety Commission, the federal agency responsible for protecting Americans from dangerous products, to require manufacturers to include the new safety mechanism. Though the proposal was introduced in 2003, it has languished due to industry opposition. Table saw design has remained relatively unchanged in the last 50 years, and adding the safety devices would add an estimated $100 to the price of the saw.

The Power Tool Institute, an industry group that represents Black & Decker and Bosch, said that the price of their table saws with the safety devices would “increase dramatically,” eliminating low-priced consumer bench-top saws, and SawStop would have an unfair market advantage.

People who have lost fingers, hands, and arms to table saws have been devastated by their injuries. Those who lack medical insurance suffer an unfathomable amount of pain, multiple surgeries, and a bill that they may never be able to pay so long as they are unable to work.

What is SawStop?

In 2010, Stephen Gass quit his job as a Portland patent lawyer to promote his own invention, SawStop, a device that he believed could save thousands of people from losing their fingers as a result of using table saws.

SawStop is a safety device that can detect skin contact with the saw blade, and stops the blade within milliseconds. The system includes an electronic detection system that sends an electrical signal to the blade. If someone touches the blade, this electrical signal drops, because the human body is a good conductor. Wood, in comparison, is a poor conductor of electricity. When the electrical signal in the blade drops, a digital signal processor triggers a fast-acting brake system to stop the blade. The entire system works in 3-5 milliseconds, or 1/200th of a second.

Watch a video of SawStop in action

Man Awarded $1.5 Million in Table Saw Injury

In March 2010, the Boston Globe published an article about a lawsuit against a table saw manufacturer that failed to include skin-sensing safety mechanism. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Carlos Osorio, who suffered severe, permanent finger injuries after using a Ryobi table saw. The court found that the table saw’s manufacturer, One World Technologies, was liable for Osorio’s injuries for failing to include the SawStop safety mechanism in the Ryobi table saw. If this safety mechanism had been included in the table saw, Osorio’s injuries would have been limited to a 1/8-inch cut on only one finger, instead of two unusable fingers and three fingers with no feeling, requiring five surgeries and $384,000 in medical expenses. The court awarded Osorio $1.5 million in damages.

Do I have a Table Saw Injury Lawsuit?

The Schmidt Firm, LLP is currently accepting Table Saw induced injury cases in all 50 states. If you or somebody you know has been injured after using a table saw, you should contact our lawyers immediately for a free case consultation. Please use the form below to contact our Table Saw Injury Lawsuit Group or call toll free 24 hours a day at (866) 920-0753.

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