POST FALLS - Kina Repp regrets not saying anything before a conveyor ripped off her left arm at an Alaska fish cannery.

"I didn't have the courage to stop and say, 'I don't know what I'm doing,'" Repp told attendees during the opening day of Safety Fest on Tuesday at the Idaho National Guard armory.

"I lacked focus because it was about the money. I wanted the foreman to know that I was a great worker."

Repp's first day at the cannery in 1990 included cleaning under the conveyor system. She sensed it could be dangerous when her sponge got caught in the roller, but that didn't stop her from volunteering to work under another machine.

"I wasn't under there a second when someone turned the machine on," she said. "This is the part of that day I wish I could forget. It wasn't the sponge that it caught; it was my entire arm."

Repp, from Ione, Wash., said she wants people to think about her experience and her decision to not say anything when they sense things aren't right.

"I put $10 an hour ahead of my safety," she said.

The incident caused a ripple effect to others.

Repp's dad had guilty feelings because he didn't pay for her college and allowed her go to Alaska. Her friend who went with her to work in Alaska, along with some other cannery workers, quit their jobs after the accident.

Repp said she has learned to adjust to life with one arm. She water skis, has run in 13 marathons and carried the Olympic torch in 2002.

And, through her motivational speeches, she is determined to make a difference for others in the name of safety.

"I don't want any of you to have to be me," she said. "When you have that gut check, think of me. Let me be that accident you guys won't have to have."

Another speaker at the event, Gary Norland, survived a 12,500-volt electrical accident working as an industrial electrician. A risky shortcut nearly cost him his life.

Safety Fest, in its third year, is free thanks to volunteer instructors and organizers and sponsors. In addition to classes and speakers, a trade show is offered.

Eileen Weilep, who works at Boise Cascade, said she plans to pass along tips from the festival to her co-workers in the company newsletter.

"It recharges you about safety and gives you a new perspective," she said of the event. "When you work day in and day out, you can get complacent."

There were 4,547 work-related deaths in the country in 2010, an average of more than 12 per day, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Tommy Groff of Idaho Forest Group and one of the organizers, said the hope is for Safety Fest to be a vivid reminder that safety should come first at work and home.

"So many times we're only focused on one thing that we can miss hazards that are right in our face," he said. "In life it's not about the hand you are dealt, but how you play the hand."