Failed Corner Brace

This is one of the old corner braces. You can see the cracks running out from the screw holes. This is a direct result of the very casual way I attached the screws. I used a self-sinking drywall screw, which doesn't need pilot holes drilled for it. Unfortunately that causes very dramatic weaknesses in the wood. This actually isn't from one of the legs with the catastrophic failure. Those were split into three separate pieces.