The deflector is still no guarantee. Depending on how you are set up with hose & cable from your CT, the two do not always stay within that shallow guiding channel.
i have not managed to cut a power cable while working in my shop, but there were the occasional dings when i was a mason, especially when doing form work. Cuts were made from all sorts of angles and the cord was almost never from same side of you for more than two or three cuts in a row, especially when trying to make footing forms conform to very rough ground.
the most exasperating mess up for me was not cutting an electric cable, but a rope. At the time, I was already out of the mason and construction trades, and into landscaping biz. My first crew was a bunch of HS lads who i had observed for many years as I had coached them thru many levels of soccer, and then watching the boys on my son's wrestling team for his last two years of HS. I knew which kids i would like to have working for me long before they even knew there was such a thing as work.
They were a hard working crew and full of fun. they learned quickly. I moved them around to different types of project on a two or three week rotation so they could all learn as much about all aspects of the operations as possible. Also, with HS boys, it was important they did not become bored. The work became fun as much as it was a job and several of the boys kept coming back after they were in college>>> and still had fun. One of the young men, who by time of the happening i am about to relate, had left for college and i had not seen him for several years, as he and his familly had moved to another state.
one day, as i was on my way home on the interstate, i was passing another truck when i happened to notice the man who had left several years before to go to college and never returned. We spotted each other about the same time, waved, but with traffic, we had to go our separate ways. That evening, the young man (we'll call him Charlie for story purposes) called me and asked if he could come to work as he was back in the area.
Charlie was one of the strongest and hardest workers i had had with me of that original crew. He was a bull, so to speak. It turned out that he had majored in landscaping and LS design while in college and was hoping to get a good fulltime job for advancement oportunities. I had told him there was not much chance for advancement working for me, as i was in proccess of winding down my operation. I would, however, like very much for him to put in whatever time he wanted until finding something better. He accepted.
The very first job I took him to was a small clearing job where i had to take down some lrge trees that were overhanging a house. I had to put a rope high up and using tractor and block&tackle (pulleys and rope) to pull in oposite direction of lean. It was a bit dangerous and i felt my usual 1/2" ropes would not be stong enough. I had never used nylon rope before, but decided this was the job to try one out. i went to my supplyer and bought a 200 foot length of 3/4 nylon and brought it to the job. I put a ladder as high up as I could and lashed rope to tree and ran it to the base of another tree further away from the house where i tied it to my frontend tractor loader. the only place on the property I could get a clear pull with the tractor was nearly along side of the tree i was taking down. I had calculated the weight of the tree, i knew the strength of the rope and with the hieght i had tied into the tree and the number of pulleys involved, i knew my brand new $200 rope was not going to break. We took the first tree down with no problem, except my rope and tackle were buried under tree branches. I left Charlie with the chainsaw to cut away limbs while i went around the corner to bring two other workers to help pull away and pile the limbs while Charlie and i would cut.
I had left charlie with very strict directions that he was not to cut any where near the rope with a mild threat of death should he do otherwise. Immagine my chagrin ( a very mild understatement of fact) when i came back with help and found the limbs were all neatly cut and ready for dragging. the log was on the ground, cut into 8 to 10 foot lengths and my brand new $2oo rope lieing very neatly in lengths right under where cuts had beeen made to cut the logs. That key word was "LENGTHS". It was a good thing i was already in my 60's, or i would not be back to earth yet. I did end up with about 1/2 of that new rope in usable condition.
Tinker
I will use the deflector on the rail.
. For the next year or so, nearly every time i grabbed for a shovel out of the pile, as I grabbed the handle, the spoon end (metal working end) would just stay in place. He had merely jammed the handle back into the metal so it looked undamaged and grabbed a new one to work with. I actually got a good laugh out of it (hey, it's always better to laugh than to cry, isn't it? ??? ) as i suspected he laughed all the way across country. With the way the kid worked, i guess I could afford a few shovels to keep him happy 
