Nail Gun Accident Attorney

One of the most common tools used in the construction industry is the nail gun. These powerful handheld tools increase productivity and can drive nails through wood and metal in a fraction of a second.

There are several different types of nail guns, including pneumatic, electric, gas, and hybrid power as well as others for specific projects.

Many professional contractors or carpenters use the pneumatic variety. Major workplace injuries can happen regardless of the type of gun. They are caused due to both design defects and negligent operation of this common construction tool.

The personal injury attorneys Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC are committed to investigating and prosecuting accidents involving power tools that have caused a serious injury. Our construction accident lawyers will do what it takes to locate every potential source of recovery to compensate you for your injuries.

This may mean filing a workers' compensation claim or pursuing a product liability case against the manufacturer. The construction site accident lawyers of our law offices can assist you in that claim.

Causes of Nail Gun Accidents

There are several reasons that nail gun accidents occur, many of them preventable. There are specific safety standards that should be adhered to by employers that are set by OSHA and proper training on the use of nail guns is recommended. Some of the most common causes of nail gun accidents are:

• Double fire. Contact nail triggers are prone to double firing, especially with employees new to handling these types of nail guns. The second nail that is accidentally released can cause injury.
• Hitting the safety contact. In both contact and single-action triggers, if the user holds down the trigger and the safety contact is bumped, the gun can fire one or several nails. This is extremely dangerous, as the nail gun may not be pointed at a surface when it happens.
• A nail “blow-out” happens when the nail hits a knot in the wood and flies off in another direction, often airborne.
• Misses. Sometimes the nail can miss the workpiece all together and become airborne, landing in the next convenient object.

Common Types of Nail Gun Injuries

According to the Center for Disease Control, nail guns are responsible for 37,000 visits to the emergency room every year for injures requiring medical attention. With the power to shoot a nail through wood or even steel, these tools have no difficulty driving a nail through human flesh and bone.

Nail guns are common in construction projects and two-thirds of all nail gun harms come from framing or sheathing work regularly performed by carpenters and roofers. The types of injuries can vary from minor punctures to severe, even fatal, injuries.

• Over 50% of nail gun injuries are to the hands or fingers. Over 25% of these cause structural damage to the tendons, joints, nerves, or bones.
• The second highest area of nail injuries is in the lower extremities of the body including the thigh, knee, or foot.
• Serious nail gun injuries have resulted in paralysis, bone fractures, brain damage, and even death.
• In a study of carpenter apprentices, 2 out of 5 had at least one nail gun mishap in their first four years of training.

Nail gun injuries happen arise many ways including an unintended nail discharge. Over 37,000 emergency room visits happen because of these items.

Learn about nail gun safety to prevent these events. For example, make sure the intended surface doesn't have a metal feature or hard surface issue. Also, check if your gun has a sequential trigger.

How to Prevent Accidents With Nail Guns

Nail gun injuries happen everywhere to construction workers. They can come about from awkward position nailing, double fire, nail ricochet, unintended nail discharge, sequential trigger nail guns, and more.

The key is understanding nail gun safety and how nail penetration happens. Here are some reasons that these incidents often happen

• No personal protective equipment
• Nail ricochet
• No nail gun safety courses
• Nail penetration through clothing
• Trigger squeezed too hard
• Awkward position nailing
• Double fire
• Hard surface or intended surface failures
• Sequential triggers
• Bypassing safety mechanisms

Know the risk factors of these serious injuries and how to prevent injury that involve workers using these guns. Get first aid and more medical treatment if your gun double fires during nailing tasks.

A worker can get injured in the leg, finger, or more when bypassing safety mechanisms designed to curb these injury risks. Remember, increased productivity or means to boost productivity for you and your co workers can harm you especially with this equipment.

The Center for Disease Control and other research centers estimate they're responsible for more than 37,000 emergency room visits annually. It is crucial to learn how to prevent nail gun injuries.

Building a Nail Gun Injury Case With an Experienced Personal Injury Law Firm

There are many issues that need to be considered in a nail gun injury when deciding liability. If you have been injured on the job by a nail gun, you need a construction worker injury attorney that understands the construction industry and all the laws pertaining to work injuries and defective products.

Our team of experienced construction injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC can advise you on your best route to receiving the most worker compensation for your injuries. We would be happy to meet with you for a free initial consultation to discuss your legal options under workers' compensation, negligence law, or product liability.

Further Reading for General Information Purposes

• Nail Gun Safety
• Nail-Gun Injuries Treated in Emergency Departments --- United States, 2001--2005
• Statistics Show Rise in Nail Gun Injuries

Nail misfires cause lots of harm each year. Centers for employee safety develop prevention strategies that have trained many workers on how to fire these guns while lower risk.

Nail gun safety is critical to stop unintended nail discharge and other unfortunate events for a worker like trigger squeezed issues, metal feature ricochet, and more.