[Accidents on circular bench saws (author's transl)].

For an expert opinion in a lawsuit regarding the suspicion of self-mutilation the physical data of an accident on a circular saw bench have been investigated. The result was as follows: The time required for severing a human forearm of 6 cm diameter is 40 to 80 ms depending on the feeding power. The impulse of 13 to 15 Ns necessary for severing an arm in only 1/10 to 2/10 of the impulse a slipping person exerts when striking the disk. The standard time data for such accidents indicated in the scientific literature are much too high.