I like the idea of the SRAM. At the current state of their equipment, though, when things get desperate, Shimano is safer.
And you know this how???
My point in all this was that there's a lot of noise to signal regarding the SRAM shifters, and most (all?) of the noise is coming from people who have spent either no, or very little time with them.
Having *personally* used BOTH systems, I can tell you that there is no more "danger" inherent in the SRAM system than any other indexed shifting system.