I had this sort of discussion with an elderly gentleman who visited my shop a few years back. He was riding me pretty hard about not having a guard or splitter on my old table saw. Honestly, I don't even know if they were ever equipped with them to begin with, but it certainly hasn't had one on it since I've owned it.
I have never (without help) had a piece of wood launched from my saw in the 6 years that I have been woodworking, and the one time that I did, the wood was pinching the saw. This happens often enough and will continue to happen. What hadn't happened before this particular "pinching" was that I hadn't ever had someone standing beside the saw and then try to "help" with the process of finishing the cut. Whatever they did launched a 1x6x4' piece of hickory about 20' in the direction that I was standing hitting the wall at about 20" from floor level. Lucky for me I nearly always stand to the side of the work going through the saw or I would have been headed to the hospital.
Yes, a splitter could have helped in this situation. Yes, no help with the problem would have been better as well. Standing rule in my shop. When I'm sawing with the table saw, NO-ONE is to attempt to help under any circumstance short of blood showing.
Back to the elderly gentleman who visited. After riding me about the saw not having any guard or splitter, we had a discussion about what was more important, a guard, splitter, or respect for (not fear of) the saw (or any other tool you choose). I am a firm believer that if you are afraid of the tool, no amount of useable guards, etc will keep you from injury.
Jimmy had it right.
"The worst part about is when your doing something that you have that voice in the back of your head telling you to be careful and your nervous when doing that said operation is when bad things happen."
There is a difference between fear and respect. When we fear the tool, that's when we get distracted by fear and that's when we get hurt. We should all respect our tools and just like was mentioned, we should know our limits. These limits include psychological as well as physical. There are other limits that we should be aware of as well, and those are the limit of the tool itself. Too often, we try and see just how far we can push them outside of their intended use. That's not to say that our tools can't be multipurpose, just that we should think at least a little about what might happen if that c-clamp your using as an anchor for a come-a-long comes loose or breaks because you've put too much force on it. (No, I haven't done that.....)
As far as table saws go though, the best thing that anyone can do to their saw (for most of us one of the most used tools in the shop, and certainly one of the most dangerous for this reason) is to align the blade with the fence PRECISELY. If done properly, the blade should not be pinching the wood as it exits the saw or leave a gap on exiting. Properly aligned, the chances of kickback or pinching are greatly reduced. My saw is still capable of ripping an 18" long piece of lumber, lets say 8" wide with the fence set on 4", I can rip half way through the piece and walk away without it leaving the table. Now, I don't do this but every so often to prove a point.
Sorry this post got so long. It wasn't my intention when I started.
With your permission, I will be posting (in the near future) some (graphic) photos of what not to do with a jointer as well.
Not that I have ever done that. 
