I'm sorry to hear about your machine. It is something that I think about all the time. Sharing your story, though, will have reminded many of us to be more mindful and careful.
I stopped using safety pins a couple of quilts ago. Mainly because the weight of all those pins was murder on my wrists and shoulders. However, I do still use straight pins and a nasty accident could happen just as easily with those. Good luck with the repair and I hope that you get your machine back quickly without too shocking of a repair cost.