Construction Worker Dies as Nail Gun Misfires

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Friday said it is investigating a bizarre “nail gun” accident at a Costa Mesa apartment construction site that killed a San Fernando worker.

Salbador Aguayo Bernal, 30, was mortally wounded by a nail that severed his main artery.

Bernal was walking behind a concrete-block wall when the accident occurred about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Costa Mesa Police Lt. John Moquin said.

Workers on the other side of the wall were using power tools that fire nails much like a .22-caliber gun, police and a Cal-OSHA spokesman said. The workers were driving four-inch nails first through wooden boards and then into the concrete with the guns, which have safety buttons that require heavy resistance to trigger a high-powered release.

Moquin and William Loupe, acting director of Orange County’s Cal-OSHA office, said one of the workers apparently fired a nail into wood that had no concrete backing to stop it.

Through ‘Like Butter’

Without the concrete, Loupe said, the nail would have gone through the board “like butter.”

It struck Bernal in the right shoulder. Police said the nail passed through both of Bernal’s lungs and severed his aorta. Bernal was declared dead about an hour later at a nearby hospital, officials said.

Loupe said investigators are gathering information and trying to determine such things as whether the worker operating the nail gun was trained and certified by the device’s manufacturer, as provided by a Cal-OSHA regulation.

The guns, made by several companies, are commonly used tools, Loupe said.