You've heard the horror stories related to tool accidents on the jobsite:

A Lancaster, Calif., construction worker slipped and fell on a nail gun, which shot six nails into his face, neck, and skull.

A self-employed Truckee, Calif., contractor tossed his drill to the ground when the ladder he was standing on began to wobble. When he fell, he landed on the tool, and the heavy-duty bit bored an 18-inch hole through one eye and out the side of his skull.

A Houston-area remodeler accidentally shot a 1/2-inch nail through his chest.

Believe it or not, these contractors are the lucky ones because they all survived. One out of every five fatal work injuries occurs on a construction site. On home-building sites, 128 people died in 2003, according to the latest statistics available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's about one every other work day.

But grim statistics don't keep contractors with no eye protection from firing nails into the floor, propping 2x4s against their legs for support before sawing them in two, or even cutting the grounding plugs off of extension cords so they can force them into household outlets.

When it comes to preventing potentially deadly accidents with power tools, builders, remodelers, and their subs need to do more than tell their workers about the dangers, say pros who boast accident-free workplaces. Indeed, the path to harmless home building might start with a slow switch from the real-men-don't-wear-goggles attitude of some construction veterans to a culture in which safety is the coolest tool on the jobsite.

A first step might be ensuring that everyone is using power tools safely, a lesson often overlooked because it's so obvious. But power tools have changed, says Terry Tuerk, product and training manager for manufacturer Metabo, who notes that bigger, faster-acting tools require more torque. "As the power gets greater, there's more chance for kickback or loss of control," he says.

In response, manufacturers have piled on safety features that help users operate the tools more comfortably and that will automatically shut them off if they sense trouble. Andy Lundberg, a national sales manager for Target and Felker brand tools, notes that his company's most popular tile saw has 14 built-in safety features ranging from automatic shut-off if the blade gets jammed to a grounded motor to a switch guard that prevents a user from accidentally turning on the saw.

DeWalt's Greg Moores, vice president of engineering for the construction tools division, says his firm's technicians try to anticipate every possible misuse, malfunction, and defect and build in safety features that will react to those mishaps.

Still, admits Jason Feldner, public relations manager for Bosch, safety features only go so far to protect a worker who doesn't know how to use the tool or deliberately uses it incorrectly. "Manufacturers go to great extents to build safety into tools in terms of guards and safety switches," he says. "But when it comes down to safety and tools, it's using them correctly."

While some, including Northern California carpenter and general contractor Tom Carty, say the responsibility for personal safety lies with the person who's using the tool, OSHA says otherwise, laying an equal burden on the employer to create a hazard-free workplace and make sure everyone who works there knows how to do the job safely.

Some pros are seeing to that in clever and unique ways. Here, builders, remodelers, and safety experts offer their advice for making sure using the tools of the trade on a residential jobsite means using them safely.

1 BE THERE

OSHA says a "competent" person has to keep an eye out for jobsite no-nos like broken tools or unused safety gear. Longtime Idaho builder Reg Dobbs says that person should be the builder.

"He needs to make his presence known," says Dobbs, who doubles as owner of Atlantic Pacific Construction in Boise and tool company Matrix Xtreme. "If a contractor knows you're going to be there, then the chances of him leaving a 2x4 lying across the entryway is reduced because you're going to call him on it."

Carpenter Bart Wellenstein of Wellenstein & Sons in Pewaukee, Wis., runs three jobs a week at different home sites and says he can't be at each one often enough, so he hired a safety services company to do regular jobsite inspections. "It was too difficult for me to just do it randomly, but I wanted to make sure it got done," he says. "It's easier to have them do it and let me do my job."

The firm stops an employee who is using a tool incorrectly or violating another safety standard, demonstrates the correct procedure, and lets Wellenstein know about it. The practice, says Wellenstein, doubles as an education tool and a safety monitor, and has helped keep his jobsites free of serious accidents.

2 SUIT UP

Twice in 10 years, a nail has ricocheted from a pneumatic nailer toward the face of a JRC Construction employee--and hit him square in the eye. Both times, says a relieved Jim Cochran, who owns the Arlington Heights, Ill., custom home building and remodeling company, the workers were wearing safety goggles, which shattered on impact but saved their eyes from injury.

"We leave those glasses on the counter so everybody can see them," says Cochran. "It keeps them wearing theirs. They don't always want to wear them, but they want to be able to see for the rest of their lives."

Indeed, safety experts point to a lack of eye protection as one of the greatest--and most preventable--contributors to injuries related to power tool use. Failure to cover the eyes or face is on OSHA's Top 20 list of its most common construction-site citations.

3 MAKE A SCENE

John Bridge takes eyewear seriously. The owner of John Bridge Ceramic Tile in Houston reluctantly admits that his vision has been impaired--despite a silicone lens implant--ever since he fired up a radial arm saw without wearing safety glasses or a face shield. "A piece of wood came up and literally put my eye out," says Bridge, who calls himself "fortunate that it didn't blind me permanently."

But the mishap changed him. Today, he says, "My employees best not get caught near the tile saw without safety glasses." When they do, he warns, "I get really upset and put on a big scene and lecture people. I'm constantly reminding people."

Indeed, notes Bridge, safety reminders can't come often enough--or too publicly. "People have to be constantly reminded that these things happen," he says. "You get complacent after a while. You work with tools for years and years and you get careless ... and you forget how dangerous they are--even if you might have been hurt before."

4 BE A ROLE MODEL

You can Bridge wears safety goggles every time he turns on a saw. Mike Buchet, senior occupational safety and health specialist with OSHA, says that's a smart practice. "It can't be 'Do as I say, not as I do,'" he notes. "OSHA requires all of the people on the jobsite to do as the regulations say."

Mark Labriola, national director of safety for Centex, agrees managers and owners have to "be safety conscious ourselves by wearing our hardhats and not overlooking safety violations but stopping the work when we see" a breach.

Doing that consistently, Labriola adds, has helped change the Dallas-based big builder's culture to one where safe building practices are expected and respected. "It becomes the culture when everyone from management on down assumes the manliness of doing this safely," he says. "It's not a weak-minded thing or a weak-willed thing to take the proper precautions. We want to make sure we are encouraging a culture that keeps people working, living healthy lives, and going home every night in a business that can be extremely risky and hazardous if not controlled."

Still, he admits, it's a never-ending chore. "It's like the Superman task," he says. "Superman never had a day off and neither do we" when it comes to safety enforcement.

5 HIT THEIR WALLETS

The admonition that makes Cochran's employees think harder about safety than any other is this: "I remind them that their raises come when we have low insurance rates and low workman's comp rates," he says. "If I walk on the job and I see something going on, I'll tell them: 'I can't give you a raise if you don't follow the rules because my rates will go up.'"

He adds: "Safety is so important to profit in a business."

Centex safety officers take it further. If a subcontractor's employee works unsafely, says Labriola, "we ask them not to come to work for us. We ask them to send another employee who will comply with the laws."

OSHA requires builders to penalize workers who ignore safety rules. Centex complies, says Labriola, by making its subs responsible for training their own crews in the proper use of equipment. So any contractor who wants to work on a Centex job must have a safety program and the OSHA-required "competent" person on the jobsite to keep an eye on things.

The system works, notes Labriola, who recalls just one serious accident on a Centex site in a decade. "It's a matter of enforcement. It means controlling the pocketbooks of the people who are out there doing it unsafely. If we stop the work, they don't get paid because work is delayed."

6 PERSONALIZE IT

Carty, a journeyman carpenter and general contractor, tells his crews: "If you're not familiar with a piece of equipment and you go ahead and use it and you get hurt, it's your fault." Indeed, he says, "The responsibility for safety comes ultimately down to the person using that piece of equipment that's going to put them in the position of getting hurt."

Wellenstein says most construction workers--especially younger ones who have come up the ranks during an era of heightened safety awareness brought on by lawsuits, increasing government regulation, and skyrocketing insurance premiums--value their lives and good health enough to properly handle tools. Still, he warns his 50 employees constantly about what could happen if they don't.

"I always explain to them that people have gotten hurt here and now they're back at work ... but that injury is something they've got to live with for the rest of their lives," he says. "Nobody comes back and gives you a new eyeball when you put yours out."

And he regularly reminds them that others can suffer from their carelessness. If someone gets injured because you didn't put the guard rail up or you didn't watch what you were doing, you have to take responsibility for that.... You get to know the people you work with, you know their families. If they get injured, it's a big stress and strain on everybody."

7 EDUCATE

"There is a misconception," complains Joe Weisling, training director at the Southeast Wisconsin Carpentry Training Center, "that safety equals a lack of productivity. That couldn't be further from the truth."

Apprentices who finish the center's program, a combination of on-the-job training and classroom instruction, know that, Weisling says. Indeed, the center is compiling accident statistics he says will show that construction workers who go through formal training programs are involved in fewer jobsite accidents than those who skip the schooling.

"Education is king," says Weisling, who says he winces when he sees contractors using the wrong tool for the job as they drive screws with a drill or force screws into metal with a drywall screw gun.

"The reason they use the wrong tool is they lack the education about which tools are designed for a particular job," he says.

Still, many builders hire untrained laborers to save money, notes Steve Billings, a carpenter and trainer at the Chicagoland Construction Safety Council, where he has worked since he took a career-ending spill from an extension ladder four years ago. And even some experienced builders, he says, don't know enough about safety.

He advises builders to send foremen to OSHA's 10- or 30-hour training courses so they can learn about potential hazards and pass their knowledge on to employees during regular toolbox talks, which Buchet recommends foremen conduct daily.

Insurance companies and tool manufacturers also offer safety seminars for construction workers, usually for free.

8 RESPECT THE TOOLS

Four times a year, Wellenstein checks every tool and extension cord his company owns to make sure it's grounded correctly. Every day, crew members check their own tools and are required to report problems. Faulty tools, says Wellenstein, are repaired or replaced the same day.

"It's expensive, but in the long run, my workman's comp [use] is low and that saves me money," says Wellenstein. "The guys who work for me are happier. They produce more."

That's an important attitude, says Weisling, who ranks dull blades, bits, and other tool parts among the most dangerous workplace pitfalls. "If they're not sharp, they're dangerous," he says, adding, "Tools have a lifetime. If they're not maintained or if they're used beyond their lifetime, they become dangerous."

Respecting tools--and their sheer physical power--is key to safety, says Metabo's Tuerk. To that end, manufacturers advise builders and construction crews to be vigilant about buying quality tools and extension cords, and inspecting, maintaining, and replacing them regularly.

RELATED ARTICLE: Case studies.

* California electrician is lucky to be alive after accidentally impaling himself on an 18-inch chip auger drill bit.

According to news reports, Ron Hunt was using his drill more than 6 feet above the ground when his ladder began to wobble. As he had been trained to do, he tossed the drill aside as he fell. Unfortunately, Hunt landed face-first on the drill, and the bit went through his left eye and out the back of his head.

Amazingly, Hunt only suffered the loss of his eye. The bit, which measured 1 1/2 inches in diameter, apparently pushed his brain aside, rather than penetrating it. Doctors considered cutting the drill bit out before ultimately deciding to unscrew it from Hunt's head.

* No one thought he'd live when 39-year-old Isidro Mejia was wheeled into a Mission Hills, Calif., hospital with six nails embedded in his head, neck, and face.

Last year, Mejia fell from a roof onto a co-worker who was using a nail gun on the second floor. The two men tried to grab each to keep from falling, but both tumbled to the ground. At some point, the nail gun discharged and drove the nails into Mejia.

A neurosurgeon removed five nails the day of the accident; the sixth was extricated from his face four days later, after the swelling went down. Miraculously, Mejia made a full recovery.

--From wire reports

RELATED ARTICLE: Pneumatic safety.

Pneumatic tools can cause the most serious injuries. The International Staple, Nail and Tool Association says four actions give construction workers their best chance to go home in one piece after a day of working with pneumatics:

1. Choose a trigger system for your specific needs.

2. Keep your finger off the trigger when you're not using the tool.

3. Wear safety glasses.

4. Read and understand all safety instructions.

The association's safety-related videos, presentations, and handouts are available online at www.isanta.0rg.-S.O'M.

RELATED ARTICLE: Nailed!

In January, a Colorado dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler had been complaining of: a 4-inch nail the construction worker had unknowingly embedded in his skull six days earlier.

A nail gun backfired on Lawler, 23, while he was working in Breckenridge, Colo. The tool sent a nail into a piece of wood, but Lawler didn't realize a second nail shot into his mouth. Following the accident, Lawler had a minor toothache and blurry vision.

After the dentist discovered the nail, the construction worker was taken to a suburban Denver hospital, where he underwent a four-hour surgery. The nail had plunged 1 1/2 inches into his brain, barely missing his right eye. He is expected to make a full recovery.--From wire reports

A SAMPLING OF TOOLS AND THEIR SAFETY FEATURES

Ridgid. This round head nailer (model R3SORHA) comes with eye protection. It features a lightweight magnesium housing to reduce user fatigue and an ergonomically designed rubber grip and trigger to enhance comfort and increase productivity, the maker says. The adjustable magazine accommodates fasteners ranging from .113- to .162-inch in diameter. 800-474-3443. www.ridgid.com. Circle 340.

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Lenox. This new line of air acetylene torches and accessories contains many safety features. The Tanktote sleeve, made of fire-resistant material, keeps tools and accessories safely within reach. In addition, the assembly includes a durable brass piston regulator; a comfortable carry handle for easy transport; a hose wrap; and an easy-to-read 2-inch-diameter gauge that is shielded by the Gaugeguard, a protective layer of high-strength composite material. 800-628-8810. www.lenoxsaw.com. Circle 341.

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Bon Tool. The Dolphin knife system allows for blade changes without the use of a tool, claims the manufacturer. It can be used with knife blades, hook knife blades, laminate scoring blades, drywall/wood saw blades, and metal saw blades. The system comes with a high-impact polypropylene holster and a leather belt strap for safe storage, even when the blade is exposed, the maker says. 724-443-7080. www.bontool.com. Circle 342.

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Milwaukee. The clutch featured in the 1/2-inch Hole-Hawg drill stalls the tool in case of kickback, says the maker. The manufacturer also says the super-long pipe handle enhances the user's control of the 7.S-amp motor. The drill has two speeds: 300 and 1,200 rpm, reversing. The product handles up to 4 5/8-inch self-feed bits. 800-729-3878. www.milwaukeetool.com. Circle 343.

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SawStop. SawStop saws are designed to minimize injuries and costs. A safety system detects accidental contact with the blade and then stops the blade in 3 to 5 milliseconds. In most cases, this means the saw operator would receive only a nick rather than severing one or more fingers. A cabinet saw and contractor saw are available. 503-638-6201. www.sawstop.com. Circle 345.

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Senco. The electronic timeout system, originally used for framing nailers featuring the company's ThinkTrac technology, is included on the AirFree 25 cordless brad nailer. To avoid accidental discharges, the technology pauses the motor if a fastener is not driven within an allotted time, claims the maker. According to the firm, the nailer uses no cords or hoses, which cuts down on jobsite clutter. 800-543-4596. www.senco.com. Circle 344.

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Bosch. Bosch. Some of the company's tools have an assist handle to ensure that users get a better grip on high-torque tools. The 11263EVS 1 3/4-inch SDS-max combination hammer is designed for concrete, electrical, mechanical, and remodeling work. A special trigger mechanism will not lock on in drilling mode, but converts to a rocker switch in chipping mode. 224-232-2000. www.boschtools.com. Circle 346.

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Matrix Xtreme. The Springlok blade on this lightweight titanium/aluminum hole saw won't vibrate loose during operation, ensuring safe, secure cutting, the firm says. The formation of the blades, says the maker, eliminates kickback. The open saw body allows for air currents to evacuate cut waste, preventing jamming and heat buildup, the company says. 208-288-1722. www.matrixxtreme.com. Circle 347.

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Stanley. A sliding arm on the FatMax high-tension hacksaw allows for quick blade changes and can power-load the blade up to 330 pounds while maintaining blade control, the company says. A pre-tension spring holds the blade's position when tightening the saw. An ergonomic handle with a closed-grip design protects hands during operation. 800-782-6539. www.stanleyworks.com. Circle 348.

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Metabo. The 15.6-volt cordless drill/driver (model BSP 15.6) is 20 percent more powerful with 8 percent higher torque than the company's previous model. The drill features a quick-release keyless chuck and spindle stop system for simple one-handed bit changes, says the firm. It also boasts a better grip and two-position auxiliary side handle for enhanced control. 800-638-2264. www.metabousa.com. Circle 349.

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Klein. The company's insulated tools protect against shocks up to 1,000 volts, the maker claims. The tools are designed with dual insulation consisting of a flame-retardant, impact-resistant outer coating, and high-dielectric inner coating. The steel handle features a cushioned grip for increased torque and comfort, says the firm. 800-453-4647. www.kleintools.com. Circle 350.

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Felker. The Tile Master saw collection, including the Tile Master Plus (pictured), features a bladeshaft lock for easy blade removal and six-groove poly V-belts that are enclosed by a guard for operator safety. The belts, the maker says, also run with less vibration, which reduces slippage. 800-3654003. www.felkersaws.com. Circle 351.

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