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Hitachi model dominates market, injury reports: Powerful tool is implicated in more serious work accidents in state than any other brand(Sacramento Bee, The (CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 13--Once touted by retailers as the nail gun that built the West, the Hitachi NR83A framing nail gun has been implicated in more serious workplace injuries reported in California than any other brand or model. So powerful is Hitachi's tool that its nails have pierced workers' hard hats, nailing them to their skulls. Yet the reason for its legacy of injuries is something of a riddle. Theories range from the lack of a company safety video for users, which are offered by some of its competitors, to the tool's strong recoil -- and its popularity. Hitachi Koki U.S.A. Ltd. suggests the volume of accidents involving the NR83A and its successor, the NR83A2, might be explained by the model's widespread use in the California construction trade. Company Vice President Benjie Hopkins estimated that among round head nail framing nailers, the Hitachi model holds 30 percent of the market nationally and up to 35 percent on the West Coast. In 125 reports of serious nail gun injuries reported to Cal-OSHA by employers in the past decade, The Bee was able to identify the model and brand in 74 cases. Of those, 51 involved Hitachi nail guns, primarily the NR83 series. In court documents filed in response to lawsuits from injury victims, attorneys for Hitachi Koki have consistently maintained that the NR83A and its other nail guns are safe. Like other nail gun manufacturers, they suggest that people seriously hurt or killed have misused the tool or failed to follow instructions spelled out in user manuals. Hitachi's framing nailer has earned praise from tool reviewers for its design and reliability. It is among the largest on the market and can shoot nails up to 3 1/2- inches long at great speed and in rapid succession. Users buy Hitachi nails in strips, allowing them to load more than 60 at a time into the gun's metal magazine. The original NR83A came with only a contact trip firing system, the type implicated in the majority of nail gun injuries caused by all brands. The newer NR83A2 has a switch that allows users to select whether to use the contact or a semiautomatic single shot system. A fully sequential firing system conversion kit is available, but must be ordered as a separate part and installed by the user, according to the 50-page multilingual Hitachi manual. Hitachi -- like one of its rivals, Duo-Fast -- does not provide a Web video or an abbreviated tip sheet. By contrast, Stanley Bostitch includes a safety tip sheet with its guns and on its Web site offers an amusing video featuring a football referee monitoring work practices at a construction site. When the referee sees an unsafe practice, he throws a flag, blows his whistle and announces details of the penalty. Senco Products has downloadable product safety sheets, safety reminders and a special e-mail link to its product safety manager. Porter Cable offers online tips on nailing and an "ask the expert" interactive feature. California Division of Occupational Safety and Health officials have not studied serious nail gun injuries by brand or model, according to Larry McCune, a Cal-OSHA safety engineer based in Oakland. But one Cal-OSHA inspector did highlight the Hitachi NR83A's potential to seriously hurt people. Last August, paramedics rushed William Pennell, 20, of Stockton to the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek after his co-worker blasted a nail into his eye, state records show. Pennell, a carpenter's apprentice, did not return telephone messages on the advice of his lawyer. However, his fiancee, Kimberly Brooks, said he lost almost all the vision in his left eye, now seeing only shadows in bright light, and has ongoing pain and headaches that doctors are trying to alleviate. "The nail tore into his head. They had to do a craniotomy (bore a hole in his skull) to get it out," Brooks said. "He has a plate in his skull now. He doesn't remember much. It's a blur. He remembers the pain." After investigating the case, Cal-OSHA inspector Barbara Godsill concluded that Pennell should have been wearing eye protection, even though he wasn't using the tool himself. But she did not let Hitachi completely off the hook: "It is obvious to this inspector that the Hitachi nailer has had issues in the past with unwanted nails being driven .... It is obvious to this inspector that these unwanted nails have caused serious injuries." The company's manuals for the NR83A and NR83A2 do warn users that the nail gun can be dangerous, adding: "improper or unsafe use will result in death or serious injury!" Yet that assumes workers have read the manual. Builder Shane Johnson says he doesn't think Pennell ever read the Hitachi manual. When his construction company hired Pennell, Johnson said it gave the apprentice a two-page code of safe practices. Cal-OSHA officials later found there was no evidence that Pennell had read even that code. "Therefore, it is unlikely that he understood the reasons for wearing the safety glasses nor the hazards associated with use of a nail gun in the vicinity of where he was working," Godsill's report added. Johnson denied that assumption, saying he taught Pennell work safety on the job every day. Even workers with documented nail gun safety training and protective equipment are being shot with Hitachi guns. Milton Anaya, then 26, was working on a garage at The Rivers project in West Sacramento for CDC Construction in May 2006. He was using his Hitachi NR83A2 while 8 feet off the ground, working on a garage wall. It fires nails so fast that one nail he blasted hit another he'd already driven -- and thwack, it bounced back and hit him in the cheek. Cal-OSHA would later determine that Anaya had received safety training and was wearing safety goggles -- neither of which prevented his injury. To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |