I know this is your hobby horse Jacob but the issue is not training. The issue is inattention due to distraction or tiredness in fallible or ageing humans. The secondary issue is insurers assessing the risks of safety in any workplace where people are employed or even in a men's shed where there is public usage of machines.
No doubt you are perfectly safe - though I'm not clear how you manage to get nicks in your push sticks, but not everyone is equally infallible.
To some extent I both agree and disagree with Jacob's position. He said in post #28, "
Basically Sawstop seems to be a big money-making rip-off based on scaremongering about accidents, particularly amongst the amateur and beginner fraternity" which I suspect is incorrect and where I rather disagree with him. I was living in the USA when Steve Gass started pushing for acceptance of the SawStop technology he'd worked on for a number of years. As I recall the discussion about him and his technology it was that he came across as a pushy person trying to use legal means to get the technology he'd developed adopted by the big woodworking machinery names in the US. His reasoning as I recall (maybe incorrectly?) for developing the technology was a response to the very high number of cabinet saw injuries and worse that American woodworkers (amateur and professional) experienced in use.
During my time living in the US I seemed to be permanently surprised and frequently rather shocked at how cavalier Americans tended to be around all their woodworking machinery, including their cabinet saws. It was almost, in some cases of use I witnessed, as if the user thought all safe use techniques or practices and safety devices attached to any machine was and were only for wimps and other weaklings. I wasn't particularly surprised when Steve Gass and his technology, and later SawStop itself appeared on the market: after all, I could see the logic of what he was trying to achieve, and my opinion of how he was trying to get where he wanted was of no consequence as far as I could see.
Where I do agree with Jacob is his promotion of safe working practices around our table/rip saws here in the UK and elsewhere in Europe: guards in place, riving knife set properly, appropriate setting of the rip fence for ripping, use of push sticks (two or more), etc, all should be promoted and taught if possible. I suspect adding a SawStop machine to those practices and techniques could add another element to reduced table saw injuries, but I don't have a position on promoting SawStop at Harrogate for example being scaremongering, a rip off, etc.
Oh yes AJB, nicks in push sticks? It happens on a fairly regular basis, and up to a point that's what they're for, i.e., push a push stich into the saw blade whilst controlling (usually) a smallish bit of wood rather than fingers. Push sticks to me are replacement items, much in the same vein as putting new pads into car disc brakes when required. Slainte.
