I had an unusual accident about ten days ago. I was turning a 31" spindle for my wife to use as a curtain rod. I had spindle mounted a 32" piece of very dry, treated 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" piece of treated pine to round down to 1" and had it about 1/2 completed when the piece started chattering. The piece bent enough to grab my left hand and my carbide roughing tool and trap my hand and the tool above the tool rest. The lathe stopped dead with my hand hung between the tool rest and the piece. I managed to reach across my body and hit the cut off switch. I usually turn with my hand against the tool rest and "squeeze" the tool from right to left.
I guess the morale of the sad saga is that if you hear something strange going on, stop the turn. The side of my left hand is close to being healed up. Your lathe can reach out and touch you. I am planning on adding a large paddle emergency switch on the right side of my lathe that I can hit with my knee. I may never have to use it, but it would be nice to know that its there.