Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) have completed a scene examination of a building site, near Queenstown, where a worker was accidentally killed by a shot from a nailgun.
Robert Otto was killed on Monday at the Placemakers building site in Frankton, near Queenstown, when a shot from a nailgun ricocheted and
hit him in the head.
OSH investigator Murray Leighton said today that Mr Otto and an apprentice carpenter were working from a lift on the outside of the building.
A third worker was working up a ladder directly inside the building, facing out toward the lift.
The worker on the ladder was trying to secure a section of steel to the wall with a Ramset cartridge-operated nailgun , he said.
"A first shot was unsuccessful and a second attempt was made using a more powerful charge," he said in a statement.
"This second shot appears to have failed to penetrate the steel and the nail has deflected, hitting Mr Otto in the head and causing the fatal head injury."
Mr Leighton said a final report into the accident was still several weeks away.
The death was a reminder to builders to take care using nailguns, he said.
Ramset nailguns are different to the more common nailguns that fire several nails in a row, used to nail timber to timber.
The Ramset guns are used to nail timber to other substances such as metal, have to be loaded like a rifle, and have a more powerful shot.
- NZPA
