OCEAN COUNTY — It was a blustery day in late October 2006 and Christopher Onseti, a New Jersey Transit police officer, was at a shooting range in Stafford Township. He was familiar with the range, and had already completed at least one firearm test there.

As he was preparing to shoot, a burst of wind tore a Q-shaped target from its wooden post. Onesti picked up a staple gun and tried to reattach the target — and what happened next could end up costing state taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Onesti, 27 at the time, accidentally fired a staple into the base of his left ring finger, records show. He put a Band Aid on the wound and successfully completed the tests. But after two operations Onesti says he still can’t do his job, and is now one of a record number of public employees across the state seeking an accidental disability pension for life.

The state will grant the most accidental disability pensions in its history this year, records show, having approved 537 through August. By comparison, in 2007 it awarded 402. (**see updated figures below) In 2010, the state made $91.5 million in such payments to police and firefighters, a 35 percent increase from 2007, when it paid out $68 million.

The sharp increase came after the state Supreme Court in 2007 and 2008 expanded the types of injuries that qualify for accidental pensions, forcing the state’s pension boards to award them for disabilities ranging from mental illness to injuries sustained from slips and falls.

In 2010, the Police and Fireman Pension Board denied Onesti’s application, contending the injury resulted from negligence, not from an unexpected risk taken on the job. But an administrative law judge, citing the Supreme Court decisions, recommended that the board reverse its decision.

"How a judge gave an accidental disability pension to a guy who stapled his finger is amazing," said John Sierchio, chairman of the pension board who has been critical of the ruling. "We should poll kids from kindergartens across the state to see how many have done the same thing."

Another board member, Vincent Foti, said, "How about the doctor that said he can’t work?"

Their comments came seconds before the board unanimously — and in an unusual move — rejected the judge’s ruling, which Onesti can appeal in state court. He could not be reached for comment.

"He never would have applied under the previous rules," Sierchio said. "I would say about two-thirds of the cases we hear are bad and involve people who are not really permanently disabled."

Mayor Elridge Hawkins Jr. of Orange applied for an accidental pension disability shortly after he was elected in 2009. The 32-year-old mayor, who is on leave as police officer there, says he was injured that year when his patrol car was struck by another driver.

But the pension board rejected his application Monday. "The doctor says he’s not permanently disabled," Sierchio said.

Hawkins’s father, Eldridge Hawkins Sr., who is also his attorney, said, "I have given legal advice to Eldridge Hawkins Jr. that he make no comment at this time."

Hawkins was a major supporter of a measure approved by the Legislature in June that sharply increased pension contributions for public employees, and even testified in its favor before a legislative committee.

Before 2007, an employee seeking a disability pension was required to show an accident involved a "great rush of force," like a punch from a inmate or a cinder block falling from a wall. Slips and falls were excluded.

But in 2007 the state Supreme Court ruled in Richardson vs. Police and Fireman’s Retirement System that the "great rush of force" was only one of many types of injuries the Legislature had in mind when it established the accidental disability pension.

"We now get seven slips and falls a month," Sierchio said. "That never happened before."

In 2008, the Supreme Court further expanded the eligibility to include mental illness.

The new rules allowed a Spring Lake sanitation worker to get an accidental disability pension this year after he picked up up a trash can that weighed 70 pounds and injured his shoulder, records show.

In another case, a Jersey City Housing Authority employee was awarded a pension last year after he showed delayed signs of mental illness stemming from a 1998 incident in which he was struck on the head with a brick.

A public employee who qualifies for an accidental disability pension receives two-thirds of his final salary, with no state or federal taxes deducted, and life insurance without having to pay a premium until age 55.

Under a normal disability — and not the result of an accident — an employee receives 40 percent of a salary, and federal taxes are deducted.

Gov. Chris Christie has said he would like to change the law to make it more difficult to collect an accidental disability pension, though he has not spelled out the changes.

He has the ear of Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver (D-Essex), who both said they would consider such legislation.

Monday, about 30 employees waited in the lobby of the Division of Pension and Benefits as the board considered their applications. Some had lawyers, others had limps, and some had both.

"We’re getting more each month," Sierchio said. "I figure each one costs taxpayers about $1.5 million. That’s a lot of money."

Correction: This article included inaccurate information provided by the state Treasury Department, which recently sent out revised figures. Those figures show the state granted the most accidental disability pensions in its history in the fiscal year that ended in June, having approved 288. By comparison, in 2007 it awarded 154.