Safety first at capital contractor
For Scotty DuPriest, the safety and risk manager for Sacramento-based general contractor Otto Construction Inc., it was a puzzling problem.
His company had cut its work accidents overall, yet 11 workers had suffered nail gun injuries over three years, ranging from minor puncture wounds to more serious damage.
"This was very disturbing and required us to take a much closer look at nail gun safety," DuPriest said.
He interviewed workers involved in each of the incidents and found that the bulk of injuries came from contact trip nail guns. He also found that even though various types of nail guns were available at Otto Construction sites, workers were not necessarily grabbing the safest one for the task at hand.
After discussing the problem with a shop foreman, he came up with a solution: Paint safer semiautomatic nail guns with single-shot triggers bright red and require that these alone be used for framing walls, restricting contact trip guns to roofing jobs.
The paint allowed construction foremen to see at a glance whether workers were using the appropriate guns and it helped workers pick the right tool for their job.
Those measures were coupled with mandatory nail gun safety training for new hires. The company also developed a nail gun safety poster for work sites and work trailers.
Since then, Otto's nail gun injuries have been virtually eliminated, a fact confirmed by Cal-OSHA records.
"You have to take care of (your workers) and keep them as safe as possible, "DuPriest said. "I want them to go home at night with all of their digits. I care about every one of these guys."