Hitachi model dominates market, injury reports: Powerful tool is implicated in more serious work acc

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/04/13/3383338.htm



(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.

FULL story at link.

[leeroysphitz]

1. These nailguns get seriously misused. I've never worked at a shop

where some clown hasn't disabled the trigger safety for "target practice".

As the old saying goes: It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.

This is not Hitachi's fault. Some guys were just born to win the Darwin Award.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Well, off the top of my head, the Hitahi seems dangerous to a degree

that can't be explained away by its popularity. If it accounts for 35% of the market, you would expect it to account for 35% of injuries. Instead, it accounts for 51/74, or 69%, of injury cases, or about double the rate that can be accounted for merely on the basis of its popularity.

Here is the actual statistical calculation:

The standard error of a proportion is sqrt((p*(1-p))/n) =sqrt((.69*.31)/71)=.054, so (omitting a few simple calculations) .69 is more than 6 standard deviations out from the expected ratio of .35, which means that the odds against this being a chance effect are astronomical.

[tomreedtoon]

3. When nailguns are outlawed, only outlaws will have nail guns.

We have a nice, lethal tool that can be legitimately bought by convicts. And you want to take it off the market? Are you insane?