My wife treats lots of patients who cut their fingers off. LOTS of them. And she says they are not all stupid as this thread implies. She says most are older men who have been using power tools forever. They are very comfortable with them. They don't believe they need safety devices - because they know what they're doing and have not injured themselves previously. But sometimes they get a little too comfortable, as people tend to do when that are habituated with something. And that's when the accident happens. This is so common that in the ortho department here they even have a name for it, "Old Man Syndrome". Most of us are at the age where this syndrome becomes much more common.
I don't have a strong opinion about government recommendations for safety devices. For some things yes, for other things no. In most cases, I don't think the government should mandate them. But I like for them to be available. Where failure to use accepted safety devices causes costs to be incurred by others - people not involved in the accident - I think there should be immunity for manufacturers of the device and I'm also OK with insurance companies setting maximum payout limits when faced with a cases of, "Well, what did you expect to happen when you did that???" Passing on those treatment costs to everyone else by way of blanket increased premiums doesn't cut it.
